A Meeting of Minds (English, Lewis Aron)

An important, enlightening work of great clarity and depth.

I am a psychoanalytic candidate, and this book was assigned for one of our courses on contemporary perspectives in psychoanalysis. What struck me the most is how unpretentiously it's written. Aron writes with great clarity and does not presume himself to be the foremost authority on anyone else's experience. "In the clinical situation, I often ask patients to describe anything that they have observed or noticed about me that may shed light on aspects of our relationship." (p.81) Such openness is not only refreshing, but also immensely reassuring. Chapter 3 alone is worth years of supervision -- if you can absorb it all! My copy has underlinings and starred passages all over.While I was initially off-put by the numerous descriptions of historical developments of psychoanalytic theory (can we get to what works already?) -- I soon recognized the deep value of this discussion and learned a great deal from it. The book is very, very well-cited. Aron references a vast number of other analysts and describes each of their contributions, as well as their shortcomings. Once again, the discussion is unpretentious and very thorough.Reading this book led to enormous personal insights, as well as deeply affected about how I see the work of psychoanalysis. I am deeply grateful to have gotten to read this book when I did, which is why I am reviewing it here in the hopes that others will pick it up and drink from the deep well of Aron's knowledge and presence.