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Emanuel Hammer is a Sullivanian psychoanalyst whose call for creativity in therapeutic style is welcome. Elaborating on concepts from his interpersonal orientation, Hammer suggests that artistic participant observation facilitates the empathic and collaborative relationship fundamental to the treatment process. Style is the manner, not the matter, of intervention, and Hammer suggests that it may be essential to therapeutic success. In his experience, when a therapist is open to receiving and imaginatively shaping metaphoric images, and when such artistry is judiciously combined with understanding, emotional awareness and communication are enhanced.
In language, tone, and structure, Hammer's book takes this advice to heart. He avoids jargon and conveys his goal of “reaching the affect” clearly and enthusiastically. Numerous, well-chosen clinical examples illustrate brief discussions of theory. The flexibility and lightness of touch that Hammer advocates come across in his generous descriptions of treatment impasses he has encountered and the stylistic innovations he utilized to resolve them. Chapter organization also carries this message of fluidity and openness, a benefit for time-pressed readers. In addition to presenting his thoughts on the elements of therapeutic style, Hammer makes a case for literary inspiration and elaborates on four specific styles that he terms “poetic,” “earthy,” “creative,” and “playful.” There is also a chapter on the stylistic demands commonly encountered in the treatment of patients with specific disorders.
Repeatedly, Hammer turns to literature as a source of therapeutic learning. Not only are the writer and analyst concerned with the same goals of deepening experience and delivering truth, both also seek to expand the self's realities by means of seeing what others do not see and speaking what others find unspeakable. To illustrate the “converging lines of observation” between therapist, novelist, and patient, Hammer offers entertaining