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In “Playing with Boundaries,” the third chapter in Philip Bromberg's Awakening the dreamer: Clinical journeys, there is an examination of the literary relationship between authors and readers. Bromberg suggests that the reader experiences a very particular form of relationship with the author. The reader can enter the author's world and “live the words” (p. 54) in order to enter states of mind that would not suggest themselves or be accessible in ordinary life. This “new piece of experience” (p. 54) is a self state of the author's that is offered to the reader to “borrow” (p. 51) for a while. In a “good read” (p. 59), the reader can successfully enter these alternate self states with no fear of losing self continuity. One is still the same after a good read and, yet, changed in a subtle and ineffable way.
A good read such as this is to be found in Philip Bromberg's Awakening the dreamer: Clinical journeys. Engaging with the many dimensions of Bromberg's absorbing writing opens the reader/clinician, of whatever theoretical persuasion, to other self states and new and “other” thoughts about the psychoanalytic process. Bromberg approaches psychoanalytic work in a deeply personal manner that enables him to articulate so compellingly the reasons why it is not only acceptable but also entirely necessary for the analyst to engage personally with the patient. He also creates a personally impactful psychoanalytic reading experience for his readers.
The engagement of reader and author also captures one of the major themes in Bromberg's contribution: that healthy psychological functioning involves the freedom to access different self states, to live in the “polyphony” of the self rather than in fragmented dissociated and sequestered self states, and, through that polyphony, to find self-coherence and immediacy in living. It is only in a relationship with another who can similarly access different self states that this can be fostered. This is a pivotal concept in Bromberg's use