For decades, both laypersons and other therapists have been curious about what goes on inside the therapeutic sanctuary. What do people really say and feel? What does the therapist say and feel, and what is the relationship between their personalities and their practice of therapy? Volumes from the 50 Minute Hour (Lindner, 1955/1976) to Yalom’s (1996) Lying on the Couch have been developed to address these questions. I count Different Paths Towards Becoming a Psychoanalyst and Psychotherapist, part of the Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series, as being part of this tradition.
The book is a compendium of narratives from a widely-diverse group of experienced psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who represent and demonstrate a plurality of backgrounds and approaches in the field. For example, one of the editors, Arnold Rachman, PhD, FAGPA, is a training and supervising analyst at New York’s Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Institute, a clinical professor of Psychology at Adelphi University, and an honorary member of the Sandor Ferenczi Society. The other editor, Harold Kooden, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice, a founder and board member of the National Gay and Lesbian Education Foundation, and a board member of the NY State Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence.
One aim of the book is to emphasize the importance of lay analysts in the field, especially those coming from creative backgrounds. The editors situate their book in the tradition of Freud’s (1926/1990) essay, The Question of Lay Analysis, which supported the careers of Otto Rank, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Erik Erikson—all of whom had faced the medical establishment of their day. Given today’s trend toward a technical and reductionistic view of psychology, the reminder of psychoanalysis’ roots in diverse and philosophical fields is welcome.
The other aim is to humanize the profession of psychotherapy. The therapists interviewed in this volume “view the therapeutic experience as a human enterprise” (p. 3). They reveal their personal struggles and bring their backgrounds in the humanities, philosophy, and biology into their encounter with their clients. In their therapy, they regard the encounter as a dialogue in which both persons learn and grow from the experience. Given this philosophy of therapy, it is clear that this book belongs on the bookshelves of humanistic therapists!
In the first essay, Rachman reflects on the significant role his nurturing grandmother played in his life, becoming in essence his therapeutic role model. Rachman believes that most therapists have had a therapeutic role model in their lives that helps them form their own version of the “curative image.” After his background at the University of Chicago provided him with the “liberal, phenomenological and person-centered attitude toward human relationships,” Rachman discovered Sandor Ferenzi. Inspired by Ferenzi’s warm and active participation in the therapeutic relationship, Rachman began to develop his own version of an active “two-person” psychology as a “co-creator” of the therapeutic relationship.
Another example of a therapist with a non-traditional background is Alan Entin, PhD. Entin starts his story with a revelation about a family secret: the discovery of a group of enticing letters from his uncle that started him on his career as a family therapist. In addition, Entin began to take photographs—first of family members, then of creative adaptations of family situations, that would form his work as a photographer who worked with images, stories, and the imagination in his family therapy. Entin also benefited from a liberal and humanistic education at the University of Chicago, followed by studies with Carl Whitaker and Murry Bowen. Bowen’s Family Systems Therapy model emphasizes a family interview, and so lends itself to creative uses of family genograms or photograph albums. Entin sees the current family situation in the context of a three-generational emotional process, in which family visits help people see who their parents and grandparents really are. Through the use of photographs to provide safety and some distance, family members can then begin to tell their stories and come to mature terms with those relationships. Adding more active versions of family therapy such as the Family Sculpting of Peggy Papp, Entin does not interpret the photographs but instead encourages his clients to learn about family systems, and then use the photographs as a way to engage their family members in discussions. His work evolved into a new field called phototherapy, which sponsors books, journals, and conferences. As one of the founding members of APA’s Division 42: Independent Practice, Entin exemplifies the importance of a therapist who is engaged in his own creative process, and who sees creativity as “a process, a practice, and a journey, an unusual journey, much like psychotherapy. It does not depend on technology. It is about vision” (pp. 73-74).
For those interested in the human being in the therapeutic process, this book gives revealing, humanizing, and creative information. It is highly recommended for psychology students and professionals.
References
Freud, S. (1990). The question of lay analysis (J. Strachey, Ed.). Norton. (Original work published 1926)
Lindner, R. (1976). The fifty-minute hour. Bantam. (Original work published 1955)
Yalom, I. (1996). Lying on the couch. Basic.
About the Author
Ilene A. Serlin, PhD, BC-DMT, licensed psychologist and registered dance/movement therapist in San Francisco and Marin County, is past-president of the San Francisco Psychological Association and the Society for Humanistic Psychology, as well as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is associate distinguished professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, has taught at Saybrook University, Lesley University, UCLA, the NY Gestalt Institute, and the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. She is the editor of Whole Person Healthcare (2007, 3 volumes, Praeger) and co-editor of Integrative Care for the Traumatized. She has authored over 100 chapters and articles on body, art, and psychotherapy.