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This important and wonderful book provides a different perspective into the psychodynamic process of clinical work by offering a narrative based on the joint experience of an ex-patient and her therapist. The title of the book, Psychotherapy and the Everyday Life: A Guide for the Puzzled Consumer suggests a link to Freud's Psychopathology of Everyday Life. The treatment was described as psychodynamic psychotherapy in view of the format followed twice a week, sitting up.
The book's story of this clinical experience unfolds in compelling ways and is a genuine pleasure to read. Because the book is so beautifully written, we feel we are reading a mystery, the mystery of a dynamic unconscious as it is revealed in two echoing voices. These voices, unlike most clinical case studies, are the direct and unconcealed expressions of two embodied individuals, the patient and the therapist, expressing in vivid language their experiences, thoughts, and feelings over the course of the treatment. One could be wary of such a joint effort, because it touches on issues of privacy and confidentiality. This book, however, addresses such issues up front with clarity and openness, always keeping the patient's interests at the fore. The idea of cowriting this book came from the ex-patient well after her treatment was over. Her suggestion became an arena for the therapist to reflect on the issues that this proposal raised in his mind and let him explore how he came to embrace the project.
What is proposed in this book is a narrative in two distinct but intersecting personal voices, revealing the dynamics of treatment over a period of three years. The ex-patient, Emily Budick, is chair and professor in the American Studies Department at the Hebrew University, and the psychoanalyst, Rami Aronzon, is a member of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society. The book is organized into ten chapters. The first six are primarily in Emily Budick's voice, and the last three chapters before the concluding chapter