The Consulting Room and Beyond: Psychoanalytic Work and Its Reverberations in the Analyst's Life

The Consulting Room and Beyond is not a typical example of clinical writing in the field of psychoanalysis. Therese Ragen, pushing the boundaries of the genre, thoughtfully explores in a very immediate way the intersubjective nature of psychoanalysis, particularly looking at the role of the psychoanalyst’s subjectivity, both how it influences and is influenced by the psychoanalytic relationship. The profound ways in which analyst and patient affect each other are captured as the author moves from a moment with a patient, to one of her own memories, to a dream, to a professional consultation and back to the session with the patient. Ragen’s detailed descriptions of her subjective experiences and clinical skill help to weave the anecdotes into a compelling narrative, worthy of the attention of theorists, academics and clinicians alike.

Therese Ragen, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst practicing in Manhattan. She is a Clinical Professor of Psychology at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Therese has published her own creative nonfiction work in the Northwest Review, the Texas Review, the Palo Alto Review and in Contemporary Psychoanalysis.