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In her opening chapter, Birksted-Breen writes of psychoanalytic treatment being a voyage. An essential ingredient of the voyage is the intimacy of two psyches being with each other. Another image of movement is presented in the form of a “spiral” honoring non-linearity. Birksted-Breen incorporates into her style of writing the original ways she has of visiting psychoanalytic concepts. She writes of the spiraling, the back and forth, the reverberation time, to depict the mother-infant relationship contributing to psychic growth and the analyst-analysand engagement in the psychoanalytic process. Her concepts suggesting movement, space, and time become her style of writing and invite the reader to join in the journey. Moving in a spiral reflects the importance of space and time.
Throughout her writing, Birksted-Breen enacts this sense of voyage and spiral that is alive in both psychoanalytic theory and in the hours of clinical work. Concepts are revisited in different theoretical contexts, with abundant clinical examples, and are articulated and revisited throughout the book.
Birksted-Breen is currently editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis (IJP), and is embarking on the second five-year term of her editorship as she plans for the IJP centennial celebration. She references contributions from all regions and across time, from 1893-2016. She brings in her thinking from papers written early in her psychoanalytic career, and a significant proportion of chapters are current, presenting new ideas and synthesis of her thinking. With recognition of her lifetime in psychoanalysis since the early 1970s, she begins with a review of her very first research contribution on first pregnancies-an instance of life's moments requiring change if “lived through rather than gone through.” Birksted-Breen informs us that her ordering of chapters is not based on publication date, but more on the evolution of the book. The course of the book moves from sexuality to symbo