SELF INQUIRY

by M. Robert Gardner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1983

Brief, deft, thoughtful but thin variations on the theme that ""the pursuit of psychoanalysis is the pursuit of two self inquiries""--the analyst's as well as the patient's. Gardner is a Cambridge psychoanalyst, and Harvard Medical School teacher, with a serious message and a graceful style; but instead of fully articulating and pressing to its logical consequences his notion that psychoanalysis has much in common with other attempts to achieve ""fuller mutuality,"" he plays with it--artfully, suggestively, and inconclusively. The analyst, Gardner argues, aims at helping people to discover whatever has baffled or intrigued them and to approach it with more respect and care. In the process he finds himself not directing a performance or judging its merits, but participating in a duet. ""When our self inquiries meet, join, and mingle in shared repetition and optimal turmoil, when maintenance and metamorphosis seem to vie--till we find ways they do not--these are the moments of the most radical possibility. For my patient and for me."" Fine--except that the only substantial illustration Gardner gives of this principle is a formidably complicated scene where he picks up his patient's account of having built a dog house for some friends and almost magically pulls out of it strand after strand of memories, associations, and crises from his own life. It's a brilliant tour de force--but not exactly the stuff that 50-minute hours are made of Another basic problem that Gardner alludes to, but never satisfactorily addresses, is the conflict between the analyst's role as humble fellow-seeker and his (oppressive?) position as highly trained, handsomely paid authority figure. Still, this is a collection of essays, not a treatise or manifesto, and if Gardner doesn't clinch his case, he certainly gets our attention.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1983

ISBN: 0881631043

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atlantic/Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION