Green's thesis is that there is a form of clinical thinking that stimulates patients to remember while fulfilling all the requirements of rigour that pertain to any other form of thinking. Following his Introduction, specially written for this book, in which he defines and characterises the concept of clinical thinking and its requirements, Green draws together various articles that illustrate how this thinking can be implemented.

The term ‘clinical thinking’ contains a creative paradox that acknowledges the workings of a genuine form of thinking in psychoanalytic clinical practice which most closely resembles the analysand's experience and is inseparable from the treatment experience. This is an original and