Lost Boys: Reflections on Psychoanalysis and Countertransference

Presentation of the author's psychoanalytic beliefs and experiences in child psychoanalytic therapy.

Detailed case studies of five boys. For psychotherapists.

This is a book about five children in psychoanalytic therapy. Their stories, dramatic and heart-rending, show the healing power of love. But more than that, this is a book about a therapist willing to go an extra mile with these children as they struggle to make sense of their inner and external worlds. Inviting readers to join him on this journey, Rick Berenstein reveals not only the intimate exchanges of the psychoanalytic hour but also his own intense feelings - feelings of tenderness, rage for the hurts suffered by these children, uncertainty, fear of going too slowly or too fast, terror, sadness, and always, love. Lost Boys is also a model of trust, shared process, and self-revelation. Two of the chapters have been dictated by the boys themselves, with commentary by the therapist. In therapy a child is asked to trust, but for children who have been badly hurt this requires an incredible leap of faith. Every child will eventually ask, in some way, "Do you love me?" As Berenstein shows so poignantly and persuasively, it is the analyst's work to find his way to that private place, to be ready and waiting to catch the child in his strong arms when the child finally makes the leap into the void.