Lichtenberg, Joseph. The Talking Cure: A Descriptive Guide to Psychoanalysis. Hillsdale NJ: Analytic Press, distributed by L. Erlbaum, 1985. 152 p.
Comments: “Joseph Lichtenberg’s “the Talking Cure” is a well written book for the layman about psa.” “I would highly recommend The Talking Cure by Joseph Lichtenberg”
Rossner, Judith. August. Thorndike, Me.: Thorndike Press, 1984. 691 p.
Comments:
For the right person, I often suggest ‘August’ by Judith Rossner. It’s easy, fun, and does talk about transference and gives a good example of a fairly raucous treatment, taken from the author’s own analysis.
Leavy, Stanley A. The Psychoanalytic Dialogue. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1980. 126p.
I would suggest Stanley Leavy’s The psychoanalytic dialogue, for starters.
Viorst, Judith. Necessary Losses: the Loves, Illusions, Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give up in Order to Grow. 1st Ballantine Books trade ed. New York: Simon and Schuster, c.1986. 447p.
Comments: …when I read Judith Viorst’s “Necessary Losses” I thought it was
basically an accessible and true enough version of what psychoanalysis was about. It was written for the general public and I think well received.
I think that the Freud’s Introductory lectures, published in paperback as “A General Introduction to Psa.” are still the best and most nteresting intro to Psa ever written, even though many developments have ensued. It still gives the beswt feel for psa.–and presented in a language intended for intelligentpublic
Cardinal, Marie. The Words to Say It: an Autobiographical Novel. Translated by Pat Goodheart; preface and afterword by Bruno Bettelheim. Mots pour le dire. English. Cambridge MA: VanVactor & Goodheart, 1983. 308 p.
Comments:
If your cousin is up for a brief but rich clinical paper, George Engel, “The Death of a Twin: Mourning and Anniversary Reactions. Fragments of 10 Years of Self-Analysis,” IJP (1975) 56:23-40, is hard to beat. What about ‘The Words to Say It,’ a first-person account by a French analysand that came out a number of years ago. I think I read it when I was in classes and was impressed. The analyst, as I recall, seemed a little remote, and the patient a little hysterical, but so what else is new? It might be worth a look.
Lear, Jonathan. Freud. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Shevrin, Howard. The Dream Interpreters. Madison CT: IUP, 2003.
Comments: I like the Howard Shevrin recent novel: Dream Interpreters. It might be a bit advanced but certainly gives a realistic view of struggles within an institute and also the analytic process. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Rieff, Philip. Freud, The Mind of the Moralist. 3rd ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1979. 440 p.
Zweig, Stefan. Mental healers: Franz Anton Mesmer, Mary Baker Eddy, Sigmund Freud. Tr. By Eden and Cedar Paul. New York: Viking Press, 1932. 363 p.
Comments: I recommend highly Philip Rieff’s Freud the Mind of the Moralist, 1959
and Zweig’s The Mental Healers, 1932.
Now It All Makes Sense.I can suggest a book, Now It All Makes Sense.
Comments: …[the author] wrote it specifically, free of jargon, for the general reader, such as your cousin, and for student and less experienced therapists On it’s website: NowItAllMakesSense.com, you can order the book as well as read a sample chapter and the book’s reviews, which are headed by Richard Simons and include other notable colleagues and several general readers, such as your cousin.
As you will see, Now It All Makes Sense, is composed of eleven chapters. After an introductory chapter, it shows the detailed dialogue between a self-knowledge psychotherapist and patient, nine with myself as therapist and one with myself as patient, then discusses the patient’s condition, the reasoning behind the therapeutic intervention and how self-knowledge psychotherapy works. I hope you find that Now It All Makes Sense fits your cousin’s needs.
Schacter, Joseph, ed. Transforming Lives New York, NY: Aronson. 2005. 192 p.Why don’t you suggest the book that Joe [Schachter] just edited.. Transforming Lives- it has analysts and patients descriptions of Rx and the analysts are a wide variety of theoretical positions…
JS clarifies: The book I’ve edited is entitled Transforming Lives. Analyst and Patient View the Power of Psychoanalytic Treatment. The contributors are Henry J. Friedman, Zenobia Grusky, Maria Ponsi, Arlene Kramer Richards, Alan Skolnikoff, Jeffrey Stern and Susan C. Vaughan. It is published by Jason Aronson, an imprint of Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. It was published in 2005 and has 192 pages.
It was written for the general public. It contains essentially even detailed jargon-free write-ups of successful analytic treatments by analysts of very different persuasion. What is unique about the book is that it includes commentaries written by four of the patients about their own treatment. Grusky also has a chapter about the pros and cons of asking patients to contribute their commentaries, and I have written an introductory chapter, a chapter about treatment of the Rat Man and several other chapters
Lindner, Robert The Jet-Propelled Couch. New York: Holt, Rinehart, 1955.First appeared in The Fifty Minute Hour. 1955. New York: Holt,Rinehart. 72 p. chapter. Reprinted in abbreviated version, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1956.
Yalom, Irvin D. Love’s Executioner, and Other Tales of Psychotherapy. New York: HarperPerennial, c. 1989. 270 p.
Weinberg, George H. The Tatoo Scarf and Other Tales. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. 324 p.
Comments: Did you think of suggesting to your cousin some of the books of ‘case histories’ — Lindner’s Jet-Propelled Couch is dated but is the classic in the genre. Yalom’s :Love’s Executioner is a good collection. There is another titled the Taboo Scarf (author I forget at the moment). These accounts are easily read, feel very personal, and free of jargon and dogma. For an educated person they might be a good introduction to the field in a more comfortable way than books ‘about’ psychoanalysis.
Hall, Jane S. Deepening the Treatment. Northvale NJ: Jason Aronson, 1998. 214 p.
Comments: I would recommend the Judith Rossner book “August:” (mentioned above) – a novel about an analysis. And … [also] (especially the first one) “Deepening the Treatment” pub. Jason Aronson/ Rowan & Littlefield. and “Roadblocks on the Journey of Psychotherapy” – same publisher (author: Jane S. Hall). The number to order is:1-800-462-6420. Both books are jargon free and have been well received. They are both psychoanalytically oriented. They can also be ordered at Amazon.
Vaughan, Susan. The Talking Cure: The Science Behind Psychotherapy. New York: Putnam’s, 1997. 208p.
Comments: I highly recommend Susan Vaughn’s The Talking Cure. She uses lots of clinical material to demonstrate how analysis works and also hypothesizes about how analysis may alter neural pathways. Also, Brenner’s Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis is always interesting.
Brenner, Charles, An Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis. Rev ed. New York: Anchor Books, 1990, c. 1973. 260 p.
Volkan, Vamik D. What do you get when you cross a dandelion with a rose?: the true story of a psychoanalysis. New York: J. Aronson, c. 1984. 281p. + 1 sound cassette (analog)
Frieberg, Selma. The Magic Years.. Understanding and Handling the Problems of Early Childhood. Methuen
Comments: I’d suggest Vamik Volkan’s case report, What do you get when you cross a dandelion with a rose?
I recommend Selma Fraiberg’s “The Magic Years”, available in paperback. Charles Brenner’s “Elementary Textbook on Psychoanalysis” used to be read by college students. If it seems a bit out of date, his book, “Mind in Conflict” may also be a good introduction.
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). Tribute to Freud/ HD. Foreward by Norman Holmes Pearson. Rev. ed. Writing on the Wall. Manchester, England: Carcanet, 1985. 194 p.
Greenberg, Joanne. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. New York: New American Library. 2004. 282p.
Comments: Tribute to Freud is a book by Hilda Doolittle telling her story of her analysis. She was a great writer and not a scientist so her account is readable for the lay person. I Never Promised You a Rosegarden by Joanne Greenberg is similarly a very well written and readable account of her analysis with Freida Fromm-Reichmann.