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A little over 100 pages and nine chapters, Pamela Power's new book is like a colourful quilt that sews together clinical work, life experiences of being a Jungian analyst, stories about her personal analyses, and diverse topics such as pet ownership and video gaming. It is honest, written with feeling, and inquisitive about many assumptions that analysts learn and believe in. I found it a refreshing read. Using her training as a musician, Power wonders about transitions in style that occur from one period of music to another. She applies this analogy to life transitions that are familiar to anyone and become focal points in analysis. She asks, “How does anything change from one form to another?” (Power, p. 1).
Her autobiographical first chapter describes when her long-time analyst died, an event that led her into psychoanalysis with an analyst who was not Jungian. She wonders about betrayal, both to her dead analyst, and to her “Jungian roots” (Power, p. 12). Her discussion raises questions about loyalty, fidelity and adherence to what could be called theoretical dogma about analytic practice. As analysts are accustomed to working into old age, this chapter offers an interesting view on many of the unspoken concerns about illness and mortality that can ambush a patient when something serious is being hidden.
Her second chapter examines the ups and downs of what happened when she adopted a border collie. It is a lesson in perseverance and tolerance that Power relates with heart. Chapter three discusses violence and the religious instinct. Power links them via the ritual of sacrifice, which often means killing off something, for example, a part of oneself. She finds that violence shadows the religious instinct and requires consciousness to accept the implications of this. The fourth chapter looks at identifications that pet owners make with their pets. Revealing her struggles, Power writes about fits that her dog had (from epilepsy) and fits of emotion that she had. I l