Synopsis
In the best therapeutic tradition, Louis Breger describes contemporary theories and research in the field of analytic psychotherapy. Through the framework of his personal experiences as a scholar, researcher, and therapist, he focuses on his relationships with patients over the span of his fifty-year career. He records their reactions, in their own words, to their experience with psychotherapy many years after its conclusion.
The author surveyed over thirty former patients to see if their progress, begun in therapy, had continued, expanded, or regressed. They were asked to highlight what they remembered as being most helpful, therapeutic, or curative in their treatment. The book is a unique long-term follow-up demonstrating the effectiveness of modern analytic psychotherapy.
Breger primarily deals with the connections between therapist and patient. This is a professional memoir of the life of the psychotherapist dealing with trials as a young practitioner, lessons learned, and personal reflections on the choices, including mistakes, made along the way. Young therapists, and those who are in or considering psychotherapy, will find it helpful to have access to this self-reflective approach.
Extracts from the patients are extensive and informative, giving the reader the opportunity to see therapy from their perspectives. The book also centers on the development of the therapist over his career span. Breger acknowledges that his understanding of patient care has improved over time in the eyes of his patients. In a larger sense, the book contains lessons for all psychotherapists. This is an important, unique, and innovative work.
About the Author
Louis Breger is an American psychologist, psychotherapist and scholar who received his undergraduate education at Cornell University and U.C.L.A., following which he obtained his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at The Ohio State University in 1961.
Breger has been Professor of Psychoanalytic Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, from 1970 to the present, (currently, Emeritus Professor). Prior to this, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California Medical School in San Francisco, and the University of Oregon.
Breger graduated from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute in 1979, where he became a Training and Supervising Analyst and was the recipient of the Franz Alexander Essay Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award. In 1990, he resigned from that institution and, with a group of colleagues, created the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) where he was the Founding President from 1990 to 1993.
Breger's previous books include:
A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis (Basic Books, 2009)
Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision (John Wiley & Sons, 2000)
Feodor Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst (New York University Press, 1989, reissued by Transaction Publishers, 2009)
Freud's Unfinished Journey: Conventional and Critical Perspectives in Psychoanalytic Theory (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981)
From Instinct to Identity: The Development of Personality (Prentice Hall, 1974, reissued by Transaction Publishers, 2009)
The Effect of Stress on Dreams (with I. Hunter and R. W. Lane) Psychological Issues, No. 27, (1971)
Clinical Cognitive Psychology: Models and Integrations (ed.) (Prentice Hall, 1969)
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