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Eminent reviewers, cited on the cover, all mention the unusually open style and presentation of Michael Eigen's most recent book, Coming through the Whirlwind: Case Studies in Psychotherapy, published this year by Chiron. It is also notable that Eigen, a psychoanalyst, should be attracted to, and attractive to, publishers particularly associated with Jungian authors.
Perhaps this is due to Eigen's unusually open attitude towards theory: ‘Major theorists are not reducible to one another. They live in different worlds of experience.’ For Eigen, theory is but an avenue into what he terms the ‘plasticity’ of the psyche, and, ‘The terms we use are possible pointers, profiles within profiles.’ For Eigen, the central issue is the entry, through the cellar of psychological work, into the reality of Being. He chooses two cases, one of inflated ‘spirituality’, the other of inflated ‘psychologism’ (the belief in the power of psychological theory to explain and control the world) in order to demonstrate the dangerous route through the psychotherapeutic relationship to the experience of self in Being. This approach will naturally be of interest to Jungians, to the extent that it is the experience of the relationship which Eigen takes to be the fundamental factor in the work of psychotherapy. His openness and extensive use of actual interactions between himself and his patients give us a very clear impression of the work in which he is engaged, how he does it, what he feels is important in any given exchange. How rare to get such an intimate glimpse into the consulting-room!
One gets the feeling of an uneasy partnership between theory and experience throughout this book. It seems to be planned in the familiar format of works on psychotherapy: an introduction; a review of theory; case material; conclusions. (I ought to say here that, although book design is not something I usually notice very much, I found the design of this book singularly unhelpful in helping me to find my way thr