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Dr. Irwin Hirsch is a prodigious scholar of the interpersonal tradition in psychoanalysis. His practice and his writings reflect his dedication to Harold Searles and Harry S. Sullivan. He decries the “medical” model of analysis even as the number of medical psychoanalytic practitioners is and has been in general decline for years.
His best chapters, in my opinion, are “Analytic Intimacy and the Restoration of Nurturance” (Chapter 1) and “Narcissism, Mania, and Analysts’ Envy of Patients” (Chapter 13).
All of his writings are thoughtful and fully referenced. However, my comments must be qualified, as this is my first reading of any of his work. The book was an exploration for me in learning about the ongoing efforts of analysts of his stripe in contrast to my training at Columbia (perhaps best defined as neo-Freudian). Concepts of “learning alliance “and “therapeutic alliance” are reviewed in rich detail. The sort of “nurture” provided in the patient's relationship with an analyst to see where they are and where they come from requires the use of the analyst's self. Perhaps the use of the analyst's self—beyond interpretation—defines the interpersonal style. Also, it appears that Dr. Hirsch himself is more self-revelatory than many analysts. In his introduction, he details much of his own family background and life experiences.
As he notes in Chapter 2, the blank screen paradigm (dated to ) is an impossibility today for any Ph.D. or physician; the concept has been rejected by any number of analysts on both sides of the ocean. The participant-observer model today has been widely accepted, along with Freudian drive theory. Concepts of privacy and related beliefs about intimacy have been revised due to the use of the internet.
Each of the other chapters on love and transference, changing concepts of the unconscious, and analytic intimacy are worth every reader's time. The later chapters on Seinfeld's humor, idealism and soberness, and “It Was a Great Month, None of My Pat