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Fred Busch has written extensively on his theory of technique as his ideas have evolved over a 40-year period. His current theoretical perspective and its clinical applications are detailed in the two sections of this book: “Theoretical Perspectives” and “Clinical Methods.” He strongly credits the influence on his thinking of Paul Gray and Cecilio Paniagua (who wrote an appreciative foreword, which provides an excellent overview of Busch's ideas), as well as a range of other theoreticians, from Richard Sterba and Betty Joseph to André Green and Ernst Kris.
A thorough bibliography piqued my interest in delving into diverse aspects of analytic literature. Busch is a practicing psychoanalyst, a child psychologist, and a scholar whose early training included studying at the Hampstead Clinic in London and immersion in the work of Piaget. The major goal of this book is to demonstrate how “a shift in a patient's relationship to his own mind” (p. xv, italics in original) represents the main curative process in psychoanalytic therapy. Numerous clinical examples, mainly from the author's own practice, provide insight into how he approaches transforming what he calls language action into symbolic, representational thinking. Busch writes in a clear and accessible style that is enjoyable to read.
Part I, “Theoretical Perspectives,” highlights Busch's focus on analyzing the process of knowing and discusses some of the ways that his method differs from those of many others. He maintains that, while we are most familiar with state knowledge, psychoanalytic knowing results from process knowledge, or learning how to think about thinking. Over the years of a psychoanalytic treatment, as the analyst pays attention to the process, staying close to the “workable surface” (p. 16), the patient