Ritual and Spontaneity in the Psychoanalytic Process: A Dialectical-Constructivist View
"In this wonderfully rich and theoretically imaginative new book, Hoffman reflects on the evolution of his own thinking and continues to explore the profound implications of a dialectical and constructivist vision of the psychoanalytic process by engaging us with vivid and emotionally compelling clinical material.  His writing unfolds as a lucid demonstration of the very model it seeks to articulate, for Hoffman never tells the reader what to think.  Rather he constructs a new intellectual context from within which to think and act - a uniquely personal space in which the thoughts we think as analysts, the interpretations we offer during sessions, and the relationships we build with our patients all take on creatively transformed potentials and meanings. Ritual and Spontaneity in the Psychoanalytic Processwill become required reading for anyone interested in the history and continuing evolution of contemporary psychoanalytic theory and in the eloquent thinking of one of its primary architects."- Jody Messler Davies, Ph.D., Associate Editor,Psychoanalytic Dialogues"In recent years Irwin Z. Hoffman has established himself as one of the most original and important thinkers in psychoanalysis.  InRitual and Spontaneity in the Psychoanalytic Processhe not only articulates his creatively brilliant dialectical-contructivist perspective, but also reflects on the role of mortality as the ever-present backdrop on the psychoanalytic stage.  This book commands our attention.  All analysts and therapists owe it to themselves to read it carefully and contemplate its significance for their work."- Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., Callaway Distinguished Professor of Psychoanalysis, The Menninger Clinic"Over the past two decades, Irwin Z. Hoffman has been one of the most influential and generative thinkers on the psychoanalytic scene and a central figure in the broadscale paradigmatic shift from classical psychoanalysis to a psychoanalysis congruent with our own time.  Hoffman combines a searing honesty, a deep humanity, a respect for tradition, and a brilliantly incisive, tenacious grip on the knottiest tangles, contradictions, and ironies of the psychoanalytic situation.  In this book, he weaves together and extends his major contributions. Ritual and Spontaneity in the Psychoanalytic Processwill become indispensable for anyone even vaguely interested in what psychoanalysis has been and is in the process of becoming."- Stephen A. Mitchell, Ph.D., Editor,Psychoanalytic Dialogues