An Experience-based Vision of Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice

"It’s hard to imagine that in this seventh co-authored book, Lichtenberg, Lachmann, and Fosshage have managed to create a thoroughly fresh vision of the psychoanalytic engagement, distinct not only from what other contributors have brought to us, but also distinct from their own past writings. Presenting, as they themselves write, '...a new synthesis of motivation, development, nonlinear emotional influences, and relational aspects of the psychoanalytic process...' Lichtenberg, Lachmann, and Fosshage now move to an enhanced focus on lived experience, on what it feels like for the 'doer-doing' as he or she moves into relating, creating, living, and breathing. Their novel and expert focus on the nonverbal, their exquisite elaborations on affect-tone and ambiance, generates a new appreciation of what the trio have already brought to us in terms of motivation and development. For example, I call attention to the clinical and conceptual distinction they make between disappointment and disillusionment. And, as always, there is an abundance of beautifully rendered clinical material. In all, this is a fascinating volume. It is groundbreaking and truly interdisciplinary in the best sense of the term. I can only add: these three have done it again!"

Estelle Shane, PhD, Board Member and Training and Supervising Analyst, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles