With an introduction by Jonathan Lear A classic collection of case studies, used in courses for over forty years. “I have written these tales from psychoanalysis to share with my readers some of the experiences I have had in pursuing what must surely be one of the strangest of all occupations. From a literally inexhaustible storehouse of material that increases each day, I have chosen a handful of stories that seem to me to illustrate something of the adventure of this fabulous profession, something of its romance, and much of its practical detail. The common element in all of these tales is the self of the analyst. Each story deals finally with deployment of that self in the therapeutic enterprise, the adventures that befell it, and the effects exerted upon it by the actors and situations described.” —Robert Lindner Reviews: “Lindner’s work is a fascinating mixture of traditional psychoanalytic thinking with clinical strategies that even today would be considered creative and controversial. In a world of rather dry textbooks, The Fifty-Minute Hour has never failed to capture the imagination of my students, as well as educate them about the art and science of psychotherapy. In the hands of a skilled storyteller, these case studies explore a wide range of fundamental ailments that plague humankind. They reveal the psychology of the dedicated clinician who struggles to meet the challenge of finding a ‘cure.’ No student’s education in psychotherapy is complete without reading this book. Decades after its original publication, it still stands as a pioneering landmark in the history of psychotherapy.” —John Suler, Ph.D., Ryder University “This book is written in the heroic age of American psychoanalysis. The author . . . blazes his way through neurosis and psychosis the way John Wayne blazed his way through Indian territory; he tracks his way through the hidden nooks of the inner world the way that Philip Marlowe tracked his way through low-life Los Angeles. The comparison is apt, because Dr. Lindner is a self-styled American individualist: he trusts his intuitions, he is willing to bend the rules to follow a hunch, he will flout convention in response to an outcry of human suffering. . . . This book is a good read, in the way that a detective novel is a good read, but at the same time it raises deep questions about the nature of existence.” —Jonathan Lear, author of Therapeutic Action
|