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Shortly before I received Tyminski's book for review, the post unexpectedly delivered another book from an unidentified source. I took great pleasure in receiving this book, particularly as the sender must have realized, if only by the title, that it would be of particular interest to me. I even had the hubris to imagine that a certain ex-patient had sent me the book to acknowledge his benefit from this important area of our work together. All this gave me a serendipitous sense of entitlement that was strengthened rather than shaken when an email arrived asking if I had received the book since it had been sent to me in error. At this point a defensive sense of rightful ownership led me to consider perpetrating a ‘theft’ by denying receipt of the book. Emotionally it was too late for the option of returning the book and acquiring my own copy by legitimate means to alleviate my feelings of loss for my overvalued object.
No other internal adventure of my own psyche could have placed me in a better position to appreciate Tyminski's assertion that we are all thieves in our different ways, at least internally. There was no denying that I had experienced this ‘emergent unconscious tendency’ myself. The author describes the strength of motivation in such loss aversion, meaning gain and loss are not equal economically, causing us to overvalue what we own or feel we own and might lose. With an emphasis on feeling, he shows himself adept at exploring the heart of theft and the hearts of seemingly heartless thieves.
Beginning with a psychiatric approach to theft and loss, the author soon moves to the psychological, emphasizing the difficulty of tolerating loss, be it personal, economic or archetypal. Following Jung's understanding of myth as an expression of the psyche, the story of Jason, Medea and their theft of the Golden Fleece is drawn upon throughout as an archetypal theme underpinning the theft-loss scenario. For the author this myth ‘provides a unique window into unconsci