TRUE AND FALSE EXPERIENCE: The Human Element in Psychotherapy

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 26, 1973

Lomas, a British post-Freudian revisionist psychiatrist, wants to demythicize and repersonalize psychoanalysis. ""The task of therapy is to show a person what he is, what he can become and what he can expect from others: to reveal both possibility and limitation."" He has found that people enter analysis in pursuit of truth and not -- as Freud believed -- in order to avoid it; angst is often a realistic reaction to impossible life situations or a result of conflicting and confusing signals; a patient's perceptions are often more pertinent than society's or his parents'; regression can be seen as a moratorium declared by a real self that is waiting to emerge. The therapist -- who needs ""ordinary human qualities;"" not ""irrelevant qualifications"" to carry out his work effectively -- should shed the glacial detachment assumed in the cause of transference and talk person to person to his analysand. Lomas is pointed in the right direction but this book is too slight to be more than a road sign.

Pub Date: Nov. 26, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Taplinger

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION