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From the first page of his introduction, Eric Sherman invites the reader of Notes from the Margins to “defy one's usual expectations
of a psychoanalytic text” (p. 1). Sherman focuses on what he considers overlooked currents in contemporary psychoanalysis: “the importance of the analyst's subjectivity as it shapes the therapeutic interaction, and the role, in treatment, of patient's and therapist's gender and sexual orientation” (p. 2). He describes the dilemmas that homosexual clinicians face and shares with us his intimate counter-transference responses. He focuses the book from a gay analyst's unique subjectivity and describes his understanding of the impact this has on his work.
Sherman shares deeply personal experiences, providing a glimpse into his work with several patients by bringing the human-ness of his background, personality, morals, and the personal meaning of his sexual orientation and gender clearly into view. He states in the first chapter:
By presenting detailed clinical vignettes that highlight my thoughts, feelings, personal history, and countertransfer-ence struggles with different patients, I hope to offer a glimpse inside the workings of the analyst's mind. I aim, with some trepidation, to do something quite radical: to talk about what really goes on in the treatment room— the good, the bad, the ugly, and the uncertain. [p. 3]
The second chapter provides a brief overview of the analyst's subjectivity. Starting with Freud, the author details the history of countertransference, mentioning Ferenczi, Searles, Sandler, Rack-er, and Bion, among others. There follows an exploration of contemporary views of the relational model on countertransference. Winding his way through contemporary Kleinian analysis, the British Middle School, self psychology, and intersubjectivity, he arrives at relational psychoanalysis, where he quotes Hoffman, Aron, and Frank. Sherman highlights Hoffman's statement that the “analyst is no more privileged than the patient in kn