Ecstasy, in its literal meaning of standing outside of oneself, refers to the state of special intensity that one attains under altered conditions of identity, whether by chemical, psychological or spiritual means and techniques. A key aspect of this phenomenon, variously explored in this book, is the movement out of oneself that is required to achieve such a state.

For instance, the therapist's empathic attitude to the patient, if thought of as a capacity of openness to the other, only achievable through genuine relinquishment of self-reassuring ego certainties, is a process that at times might require a capacity for ecstasy. Segal's definition of ecstasy as ‘temporary [relinquishment of] the safe limits of personal identity in order to extend sympathetically to other dimensions of experience’ (quoted by Pestell on p. 111) can also be used to think of this aspect