Psychotherapy and the Everyday Life: A Guide for the Puzzled Consumer

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is in every way a perplexing business.

Through a frank dialogue between a former patient and her former therapist Psychotherapy and the Everyday Life introduces psychodynamic therapy to prospective and beginning patients.

It addresses individuals who are seeking psychological help and wish to determine whether this particular form of psychotherapy is appropriate for them.

It is also intended for those whose therapy is already underway, to assist them in furthering understanding and clarifying their experience so that they can better avail themselves of what it has to offer.

The book can also serve as a reminder to novice professionals (and perhaps some more experienced professionals as well) concerning what psychotherapy feels like from the patient's point of view and what complexities of response and intention lie behind the therapist's interventions.

It is not meant to substitute for the psychodynamic conversation that is therapy itself.

Rather, it is an attempt, in straightforward, non-professional language, to help facilitate the clinical experience.