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This book is both a love story and a mystery. The love story is in author Schlein's appreciation for his mentor Erikson: “… he nourished me in so many ways with his warmth, support, affirming presence, and physical affection” (p. 14). Schlein explains that “… the psychoanalytic community knows little about the therapeutic technique and clinical method of Erik Erikson” (p. 2), partly because Erikson was reluctant to make such private material public, and that therefore “[Schlein] will try to serve as his voice” (p. 1). This multiyear project involved locating and studying unpublished case material and notes, as well as published case descriptions and comments about technique. Schlein quotes Erikson's thoughts copiously, and thus provides a clear description of his clinical work with different age groups as well as his participation in Austen Riggs case conferences.
The material makes it evident that Erikson related naturally, informally, and flexibly with patients of all ages.
Erikson was not theory-bound: he could customize and personalize the patient's therapeutic needs with a fresh perspective, and he demonstrated a unique capacity to immerse himself existentially in the patient's world in order to understand and appreciate what they were living through. … (p. 70)
He stayed in contact with many patients after treatment ended, and even liked to visit child patients in their homes before beginning treatment (an approach that most readers of this journal probably would not recommend). In Erikson's work with adolescents and adults, Schlein highlights the centrality of a healing relationship based on mutuality in which the therapist is a participant observer rather than an aloof expert. Unsurprisingly, given the centrality of identity formation and diffusion in Erikson's writings, he saw a state of wholeness as a primary goal of therapy.
Erikson appears to have been far ahead of his time in his recognition not only that uninterpreted play during child psychotherapy can be