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Searching for the Perfect Woman is Vamik Volkan's second ‘story of a complete psychoanalysis’. This endeavor varies from its predecessor, What Do You Get When You Cross A Dandelion With A Rose (Volkan, 1984), by virtue of its attempt to integrate Volkan's longstanding interest in chronicling the intricacies of psychoanalysis with his equally abiding efforts to lay bare the social and intergenerational roots of trauma in political, ethnic and religious conflict. In Searching for the Perfect Woman, Volkan tells the story of ‘Hamilton’:
[a] universal one, teaching us how our real and fantasized childhood experiences-especially the traumatic ones, specific relationships with parents and others in our early environment, as well as our ancestors' histories-shape our personalities.
Allowing the developmental sequelae of trauma to unfold in the transference is an unparalleled way to expose and articulate them. The analysand, Hamilton, proves equally suited to the task: