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PAH 16(1):124-127 (2014) • DOI: 10.3366/pah.2014.0144

Bettelheim: Living and Dying, by David James Fisher (Volume 8 of Contemporary Psychoanalytic Studies, Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Press, 2008; 180 pp): reviewed by Nathan M. Szajnberg

Author: Nathan M. Szajnberg MD

Abstract

Listen to some statements about psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts. How do they grab you?

Analysts are a suspicious bunch, asking ‘Why?’ ‘Why now?’ ‘How does this feel?’ They are even skeptical of their own theories, interpretations and techniques, thereby (hopefully, with enough hard honesty) better able not to need to be taken by their own interpretations, unlike their, at times, idealizing patients. (pp. 21-2, 26, 27)
And, while analysts are suspicious, the patient is always right (and wrong). (pp. 4, 6)
Analysts are soul detectives. (pp. 9, 21, 25)
The goals of psychoanalysis are authenticity, wholeness; autonomy (self-rule from the Greek). (p. 3)
The psychoanalytic situation is an island of serenity for dialogue, self-discovery, and affective exploration. (pp. 3, 20)
Too much theory estranges, distances, deflects from emotions. (pp. 3, 23, 25)
NATHAN M. SZAJNBERG, MD is Wallerstein Research Fellow in Psychoanalysis, SFCP; Member, Columbia and New York Psychoanalytic Societies; and Training Analyst, Israel Psychoanalytic and the IPA. He is author of Sheba and Solomon's Return: Ethiopian Children in Israel. Address for correspondence: 161 W 61st St Suite 3A, New York, NY 10023, USA. []
Page 124
Psychoanalysis needs humaneness, truth, compassion and courage. (p. 27) The soul is what we have in common in humanity, contains our valuable traits; the soul is our essence, our spiritual core. (p. 25)

Without saying more, we sense we are in the presence of someone who has thought about the inner life and its exploration deeply, humanely, emphatically.

PAH 16(1):124-127 (2014) • DOI: 10.3366/pah.2014.0144

Bettelheim: Living and Dying, by David James Fisher (Volume 8 of Contemporary Psychoanalytic Studies, Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Press, 2008; 180 pp): reviewed by Nathan M. Szajnberg

Author: Nathan M. Szajnberg MD

Abstract

Listen to some statements about psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts. How do they grab you?

Analysts are a suspicious bunch, asking ‘Why?’ ‘Why now?’ ‘How does this feel?’ They are even skeptical of their own theories, interpretations and techniques, thereby (hopefully, with enough hard honesty) better able not to need to be taken by their own interpretations, unlike their, at times, idealizing patients. (pp. 21-2, 26, 27)
And, while analysts are suspicious, the patient is always right (and wrong). (pp. 4, 6)
Analysts are soul detectives. (pp. 9, 21, 25)
The goals of psychoanalysis are authenticity, wholeness; autonomy (self-rule from the Greek). (p. 3)
The psychoanalytic situation is an island of serenity for dialogue, self-discovery, and affective exploration. (pp. 3, 20)
Too much theory estranges, distances, deflects from emotions. (pp. 3, 23, 25)
NATHAN M. SZAJNBERG, MD is Wallerstein Research Fellow in Psychoanalysis, SFCP; Member, Columbia and New York Psychoanalytic Societies; and Training Analyst, Israel Psychoanalytic and the IPA. He is author of Sheba and Solomon's Return: Ethiopian Children in Israel. Address for correspondence: 161 W 61st St Suite 3A, New York, NY 10023, USA. []
Page 124
Psychoanalysis needs humaneness, truth, compassion and courage. (p. 27) The soul is what we have in common in humanity, contains our valuable traits; the soul is our essence, our spiritual core. (p. 25)

Without saying more, we sense we are in the presence of someone who has thought about the inner life and its exploration deeply, humanely, emphatically.