Being a Character: Psychoanalysis & Self Experience
The author suggests that psychotherapists can analyze their patients' narratives of daily life in much the same way that dreams are analyzed, since the process by which each of us forms a self-image is analogous to the way we unconsciously form a dream narrative. While this is an interesting idea, Bollas's lack of reading outside his narrow specialty means that the bulk of the book is devoted to the "rediscovery" of concepts long common in philosophy, social psychology, and modern dream research. The second half of the book, consisting of a series of chapters on various analytical issues, has no apparent relationship to the first half. Much of the material is unsupported by any empirical data (e.g., he takes for granted the notions that homosexuals are obsessed with their mothers and that some children are shy because they have not successfully resolved their Oedipal crisis) or are commonplace ideas to those outside the narrow Freudian world. This book will appeal only to those libraries supporting training programs in Freudian psychoanalysis.- Mary Ann Hughes, Washington State Univ. Libs., PullmanCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.