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Professor Kast has emerged as one of the most widely read Jungian authors. She lectures in different centres and her books have been translated into many languages. The reader of this book will have the opportunity of appreciating the reasons for her popularity. Her readable and yet concise style enables her to convey complex clinical issues in a deceptively simple manner. Her subject matters are not only topical but also of central importance to clinicians as well as to the informed public at large.
Reading The Creative Leap against this background, one cannot but confirm these overall qualities of the author and, moreover, be impressed by the innovative way in which she approaches crisis and its therapeutic treatment. Crisis is here defined within the broadest possible framework: ‘We speak of a crisis when an individual experiences a disconcerting disequilibrium between the subjective importance of a problem and the resources available for coping with it’ (p. 4). Following this broad and at the same time subjectively determined definition, the author is able to address a wide spectrum of crisis situations, from developmental (maturational) ones to those of demand or loss, from the externally determined to those which are intrapsychically designated. In doing so, she moves away from traditional approaches to crisis intervention (cf. , Treatment in Crisis Situations, 1978) and develops her own understanding of what constitutes a crisis and what psychological processes are involved in it and around it. For example, she attributes a central role to what she calls ‘crisis feelings’ which are the reactions triggered in all individuals associated with a particular crisis. ‘I consider these countertransference feelings … an integral aspect of crisis intervention’ (p. 2). Thus, Dr Kast accounts for what could be termed the ‘network of archetypal images’ connected with the emergence of a crisis. However, the theory seems to be secondary to her clinical work. The book