A Psychotherapy for the People

"Most contemporary clinical psychologists know little or nothing about contemporary psychoanalytic clinical psychology. Far too often, more on the basis of biased preconceptions than on opinion holders’ conversant familiarity with contemporary psychoanalytic literature, nonpsychoanalytically oriented psychologists see psychoanalytic thought and practice as racist, sexist, homophobic—and outdated, irrelevant, ineffective, and dangerous: this, despite compelling meta-analyses (Shedler, 2010) showing that psychodynamic psychotherapy is, for most patients seen by clinicians, the most effective intervention we have, with the largest effect size and the most enduring results. Lewis Aron and Karen Starr’s book A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward a Progressive Psychoanalysis has the potential to change this state of affairs. It needs to be widely read and discussed."- Richard Ruth, PsycCRITIQUES

"Can psychoanalysis achieve the universality to which it lays claim? Only by giving it up, goes the dialectical argument of A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward a Progressive Psychoanalysis. Aron and Starr return psychoanalysis to its proper place on the cultural edge. They unveil the binaries – and behind them the hierarchies - that both power and weaken psychoanalysis. This anti-authoritarian book gives us good reason to hope that, by embracing its native complexity, psychoanalysis can realize its capacity to help, illuminate, and heal. Toward a heterodox psychoanalysis!"- Muriel Dimen PhD, Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York University

"When a book combines a profound understanding of psychoanalysis with a profound understanding of its historical and social context, that is a rare event indeed. When, in addition, it illuminates the still unrealized potentials of psychoanalysis to contribute to social progress, we have a truly landmark contribution. A Psychotherapy for the People should be required reading for anyone interested in psychoanalysis – or, for that matter, the human condition."- Paul L. Wachtel, CUNY Distinguished Professor, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center

"A Psychotherapy for the People is unique, unusually daring, intellectually adventurous and highly illuminating. Aron and Starr are guided by a humane and complex vision that encompasses the vulnerability and social trauma, the human failings and strengths that underlay a great intellectual achievement. They offer a sorely needed perspective on the binary oppositions and patriarchal biases that snagged so many psychoanalytic thinkers. This is a book that could well frame the central issues for everyone who hopes to preserve the talking cure, the dynamic therapy that can serve us all." - Jessica Benjamin, Clinical Professor, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis

"When a book combines a profound understanding of psychoanalysis with a profound understanding of its historical and social context, that is a rare event indeed. When, in addition, it illuminates the still unrealized potentials of psychoanalysis to contribute to social progress, we have a truly landmark contribution. A Psychotherapy for the People should be required reading for anyone interested in psychoanalysis – or, for that matter, the human condition."- Paul L. Wachtel, CUNY Distinguished Professor, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center, USA

"Can psychoanalysis achieve the universality to which it lays claim? Only by giving it up, goes the dialectical argument of A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward a Progressive Psychoanalysis. Aron and Starr return psychoanalysis to its proper place on the cultural edge and contextualize its conceptual and clinical multiplicity in social and intellectual history. They unveil the binaries – and behind them the hierarchies - that both power and weaken psychoanalysis. This anti-authoritarian book gives us good reason to hope that, by embracing its native complexity, psychoanalysis can realize its capacity to help, illuminate, and heal. Toward a heterodox psychoanalysis!"- Muriel Dimen PhD, Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York University, USA