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This book has an immediate impact in terms of introducing the life work of a sensitive and experienced clinician who sets out ‘to meet people skin to skin’ (p. 16), and ‘to know the patient rather than to know about him’ (p. 24). The latter is a good way to bring the patient alive, she says, whether in the treatment session or in supervision. Though there is very little biographical information about the author, the reader quickly establishes that she is also a solid and talented teacher.
There is an informality about the style which resembles a personal workbook, a collection of lectures and talks given to a variety of audiences and then recorded for future reference, particularly including her selection and use of other authors. There is a stimulating and controversial bibliography.
The middle section of the book is made up of six chapters on theory and technique. In a style suitable for beginner and experienced alike, she discusses fundamental issues from her own individual perspective, then referring the reader on to a comprehensive list of experts in each field. For example, she describes the overlap between the transference and the therapeutic alliance, suggesting Sodre (1990), ‘Treatment alliances: therapeutic and anti- therapeutic’, for further reading (chapter 7).
The overall message in these chapters concerns assessment, drawing on the valuable teaching and experience of Nina Coltart. There is a salutary reminder to psychoanalysts that not all patients, in fact perhaps very few, are in a position psychologically to be able to adapt immediately if at all to the classic psychoanalytic setting. There are chapters devoted to holding, non-transferential interpretations and transferential interpretations to distinguish one group of patients from another.
The author focuses on the ego and its capacity to instil responsibility for one's self and actions. The doubts of the title include a renunciation of everything being seen as coming from and relevant in the internal