Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide

During my first year of grad school, we had this awesome object relations therapist who taught a year-long course on psychotherapy to our little cohort - we talked about everything from nonspecific factors to existential therapy. Jim recommended this book at the end of the year, but I just got around to reading it (7 years later...oops). I'm really glad I've kept it & carted it along on two big moves. McWilliams is a treasure. She is a tremendously gifted writer, who is so humorous and compassionate about the art of therapy (both the art of giving and of receiving!) that I would bet a great deal of money that she is also a tremendously gifted therapist. Psychodynamic isn't my home orientation, but a lot of it speaks to me, and I think this is a “must read” for all clinicians.

A beautiful quote:
“Analytic therapy has, as Lichtenberg (1998), and others have emphasized, a kind of self-righting mechanism that iterates towards authenticity” (p. 42, on faith in therapy).

A quote that made me laugh outloud in self-recognition:
“Like many therapists, I am an unregenerate voyeur: I love to witness what is private, hidden, concealed from public view. I read People magazine. I gossip. I savor the juicy anecdote. I thought, when I began my training as a therapist, that this lamentable yet robust part of my personality would be deeply nourished by this work. I regret to report that feasts for one's voyeurism lose most of their spice when one cannot share them with others” (p. 264-265, on occupational hazards).