This book draws upon analytically oriented settings for almost all our clinical observations. It provides an excellent introduction to the theory and technique of communicative psychoanalysis and links it with the growing field of evolutionary psychoanalysis.

Robert Langs argues that death anxiety is neglected - in part, because of treatment failures due to countertransference interferences during treatment. He then discusses the technical issues connected with this, whilst introducing the controversial concept that mental activities are derived from immune system activities.

`This book issues a challenge to anyone in the field of psychotherapy who is resigned to seeing psychotherapy as solely a service activity or an art or craft. Instead, Langs invites us to see that psychotherapy, clinical technique and practice may have intricate and fundamental conditions to the scientific laws of nature and the universe. This work will also be of value to those psychotherapists who are interested in asking research questions about the process and technique of psychotherapy. It is also a refreshing read in a postmodern era where the pursuit of validity and fundamental laws seems to have gone out of fashion′ - New Therapist

The first in-depth psychoanalytic study of the Old and New Testaments, Beyond Yahweh and Jesus centers on God's role in enabling humans to cope with death and the anxieties it evokes. Yahweh is seen as tending to increase rather than diminish these death anxieties, while Christ offers near-perfect solutions to each type. Why, then, asks Dr. Langs, has Christ failed to bring peace to the world? Langs' answer is focused on what is, he argues, Western religion's lack of a deep understanding of human psychology-i.e., an absence of the psychological wisdom needed to supplement the spiritual wisdom of religion. This is a void bemoaned as early as the mid-1800s by the Archbishop Temple and by Carl Jung in the early 20th century. The journey on which Langs' study embarks leads through an examination of the related topics of knowledge acquisition and divine wisdom; the failure of psychoanalysis to provide religion with the psychology it needs to fulfill its mission; and a set of propositions that are intended to bring psychological wisdom to religion and thereby to initiate the third chapter in the history of God, in which a refashioned morality and fresh divine wisdom play notable roles. Simultaneously, the book offers a foundation for secular forms of spirituality and morality, as well as for human efforts to cope with death and its incumbent anxieties. The mission of this book is a lofty but necessary one: to reinvigorate religion with new dimensions and insights so as to empower it, at long last, to help bring peace to the world, both individually and collectively.

This controversial book argues that 20th century psychotherapy has been fundamentally characterized by serious disagreement on views of human nature, treatment rationales and goals. Focusing on the differences rather than the commonalities in therapy, eight eminent practitioners demonstrate the diversities in therapies and why, for the most part, it is not possible to tolerate or integrate with other approaches. The book awakened me to understanding more about how a core belief or orientation can result in polarised attitudes towards the person. At the same time, in some cases, there is fundamental common ground which could potentially lead to genuine integration' - "[ac]Eisteach, The Journal of the Irish Association for Counselling and Therapy "Eight distinguished practitioners address twelve different questions, aimed at identifying the distinctive qualities of their own approach and demonstrating how it has been arrived at. The result is a book that will allow both experienced practitioners and trainees to become familiar with and compare the current thinking of these well-known people... the very passion of these opposing and sometimes exclusive convictions may be the well-spring for the efficacy and achievements of these eminent practitioners and trainers' -"Self & Society " Each therapist highlights the distinctive properties of his or her orientation, and discusses questions such as: why and how they came to found, adapt or choose the approach they currently practise; what criticisms of the approach they consider to be valid; which approaches they consider to be ineffective, misleading or dangerous, and, conversely, more promising or effective; why their approach is more effective or comprehensive, and why it may be more suited to certain clients or client problems; and how they account for research which suggests that no one approach seems more effective than any other.

This volume is the first concentrated effort to offer a philosophical critique of relational and intersubjective perspectives in contemporary psychoanalytic thought. The distinguished group of scholars and clinicians assembled here are largely preoccupied with tracing the theoretical underpinnings of relational psychoanalysis, its divergence from traditional psychoanalytic paradigms, implications for clinical reform and therapeutic practice, and its intersection with alternative psychoanalytic approaches that are co-extensive with the relational turn. Because relational and intersubjective perspectives have not been properly critiqued from within their own schools of discourse, many of the contributors assembled here subject advocates of the American Middle School to a thorough critique of their theoretical assumptions, limitations, and practices. If not for any other reason, this project is of timely significance for the field of psychoanalysis and the competing psychotherapies because it attempts to address the philosophical undergirding of the relational movement.

Mentoring intersects memoir as 31 illustrious psychotherapist share the origins of their professional ambitions and, mixing authority with levity, selectively describe their professional odysseys. Martin A. Schulman reflects on his “deformative years” in the European Jewish culture of the Bronx. Sebastiano Santostefano remembers his youth in the less predictable crucible of rurarl Sicily, where his father and grandfather, functioning as village therapists, mediated family disputes. He divides his recollections into cycles of which his integrative approach to work with children is the intellectual climax. Jeffrey Seinfeld, who spent much of his adolescence in “special rehabilitation facilities for acting-out youth” (i.e. reform schools), regards his own psychotherapy as a form of salvation and the practice of psychotherapy as a calling. Martha Stark expresses the passion she sought and the engagement she found when she reconciled her strengths of heart and mind as a psychoanalyst in the title for her contribution: “If You Love Your Job, You’ll Never Work Another Day in Your Life.” Among Joseph Reppen’s other recruits are Maria Bergmann, Morris Eagle, Althea Horner, and Ruth Lax—sources all of career counsel, professional confessional, and high-brow gossip.