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Editors' note: The first volume under review is by Ahron L. Friedberg, the book review editor for this journal.
Refreshing, honest, respectful of the reader: These qualities sustain Ahron Friedberg's Life Studies in Psychoanalysis, which follows traumatized individuals as they seek to achieve self-recognition and personal change. Dr. Friedberg writes for the reader, whether this be a newcomer seeking psychotherapy, a young psychotherapist, or even experienced therapists who would refresh their technique. As becomes clear, the basis of this broad appeal is that Friedberg allows us to navigate between intricate detail and profound insight. No one can get “lost,” either in thickets of data or theoretical pronouncements. For readers—as for patients—Friedberg provides a way through. You cannot help but learn. What may have seemed to you like scattered bits of knowledge about psychotherapy will cohere into an understanding of what therapists really do.
Life Studies presents four extensive case studies, each distilling years of painstaking clinical work. Together, they provide a highly original take on the role of love, both as a cause of distress and as a means to precipitate healing. No one—not Yalom, not Phillips, not even Freud—has so clearly (and convincingly) documented this relationship. As readers, we observe the transition. Friedberg equips us to follow his every move, as well as his patients' responses.
Each study reflects a different clinical approach, targeted to the inner life of a specific patient:
Classical Oedipal (“A Complex Oedipus Complex”)
Self-psychological presentation (patient lacks self-cohesion, sincere self-love (“Little Match Girl”)
Winnicottian, involving a deficit in self-esteem (“Gatsby”)
Bowlby's attachment theory (“Reluctance”)