Clinical Values

"This book weaves a multitude of clinical case examples with the emotional experiences contained within them that guide the action of treatment. Buechler's approach is a more subtle study of the interpersonal and emotional mechanisms that enhance the capacity for insight, the way in which the analyst's emotional presence and interaction with the patient facilitates the acquisition of quite mainstream goals. Buechler offers a book that does what she maintains emotions do: fortify and sustain us as we feel our way through the inevitable and destabilizing emotional intensity of our work."
—International Journal of Psychoanalysis

"Buechler offers a book that does what she maintains emotions do: fortify and sustain us as we feel our way through the inevitable and destabilizing emotional intensity of our work."
—JAPA

"The book is ideal as a text for therapists in training at a variety of levels. You don't have to be an analyst to appreciate its depth and frank discussion of human emotions and struggles. Sandra Buechler successfully condenses decades of experience as an analyst into this slim volume that can be read quickly, yet mulled over endlessly. It is as valuable for what it stimulates in the reader as for what it overtly teaches. Any class on technique or supervisory dyad would benefit from reading it."
—Contemporary Psychoanalysis

"Reading this book provides some of the same comfort that follows a satisfying supervision session when there has been a significant sharing with your supervisor, the wise guide sitting across from you. Buechler's weaving of psychological theory with poetry and literature to make sense of her life and her work is an inspiration for any clinician - intern or highly experienced - who gainfully pauses to consider the qualities most important to his or her work and to those he or she treats. This is a personal volume, reflective and forward thinking, intimate and sharing."
—Clinical Social Work Journal

"This is a well-written book grounded in the humanities, and is aptly described as 'ecumenical' given its manifest respect for the day-to-day experiences of human frailty."
—Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing

“This inspiring book refreshes and reminds us why we want to practice psychoanalysis as well as we can. It is an antidote to professional burnout and discouragement. Clinical Values is a book for every clinician to read, especially when feeling frustrated by difficult patients. Buechler’s thoughtful counsel is ecumenical, relevant to analysts of every persuasion. Get this book and keep it close by.”

- Stanley Coen, M.D., Author, The Misuse of Persons (Analytic Press, 1992)

“Buechler’s topics – among them courage, kindness, integrity, the need to bear loss – work their way through every clinical encounter but are rarely theorized. I recommend this wise, compassionate, and refreshingly optimistic book to students and practitioners alike, to anybody who is interested in learning more about the unspoken essentials of the therapy process.”

- Jay Greenberg, Ph.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, William Alanson White Institute

"A subtle, thoughtful, and highly nuanced book that enriches and extends contemporary Interpersonal Theory. Buechler's uniquely poetic sensibility has carried her well beyond the usual considerations of theory and process. For all her meticulous and scholarly presentation, she sees psychoanalysis as less about social engineering or even psychic repair than about poesis, the creation of meaning, and ultimately about passion-for both the work and the patient's emergence. Her book is an original contribution and well worth reading by both practitioners and students of psychoanalysis."

- Edgar A. Levenson, M.D., Author, The Purloined Self