Book Review
Psychotherapy
Listening Perspectives in Psychotherapy Lawrence E Hedges. Northvale (NJ): Jason Aronson; 2003. 329 p. US$40.00.
Reviewer
rating*: Good
Review by: Paul Ian Steinberg, MD, FRCPC
Edmonton, Alberta
This book reviews progress in psychoanalytic developmental psychology from the point of view of how developments in psychoanalytic theory can be used to form listening perspectives appropriate to an individual patient’s level of development. The author presents a reasonably precise and accurate review of the development of psychoanalytic personality theory. Unfortunately, however, this otherwise useful and easily read book is marred by more editorial errors than I have ever seen in any text, professional or not. The first half of the text, especially, is strewn with grammatical and typographical errors, as well as mistakes in spelling and punctuation. I wish that the author and editor had taken more care with this 20th-anniversary edition.
The first 2 chapters introduce the notion of listening perspectives as clinical frames of reference. They describe 4 phases of human experience corresponding to psychotic, borderline, narcissistic, and neurotic levels of personality organization, in terms of experiences of the self and the other. Four sections follow, each with between 1 and 3 chapters on each listening perspective. These perspectives include the constant self and the constant object (neurotic level); the self-object (narcissistic level); the merger object (borderline level); and the part-self and part-object, that is, inconstancy (psychotic level). The author advocates adopting one of these 4 listening perspectives according to the current needs of the patient and acknowledges that patients who are at one level may function at times at a different level. This appears generally to be good advice, but it may at times be difficult to follow because clinicians are not equally comfortable with, or well informed about, all theories and approaches. For example, many clinicians who do not subscribe to Kohutian self-psychology may not feel comfortable applying it to patients considered to be functioning at the level of the self-object. This impression of discomfort is supported by the author’s including a contribution by another author in this section. Part of my difficulty with this book stems from the fact that the author describes not only listening perspectives but also theoretical approaches, which in the case of self-psychology, appear incompatible with other theories. It does not appear possible to jump from one theory to another, as the author seems to suggest, without having a split in one’s mind. It seemed to me that the chapter on the self-object listening perspective included an interpretation of a Hans Christian Anderson tale that was somewhat forced along self-psychology lines.
Conversely, the chapter on borderline personality organization included an excellent and clear application of Margaret Mahler’s work, although some of the vignettes raised questions regarding countertransference difficulties and boundary crossings on the part of the therapist. These were not commented on, which concerned me.
In contrast to all the other summaries, which were excellent, I could not comprehend the summary of Lacan’s work: it appeared too condensed to be understandable. As well, a chapter on the developmental points of view applied to clinical interactions included a description of play therapy for a child that was lengthy, tedious, and speculative; it did not serve the author’s goals well. Other vignettes in this chapter were more effective. Overall, it described several treatments from a developmental point of view and relied heavily on Mahler’s work.
Apart from these comments, I thought that there was much of value in this book. The author is generally clear and writes well (excepting the above-mentioned errors). He appears to be an expert on the subject. Its price seemed somewhat high for a paperbound edition.
*Reviewer
Rating Scale/ Échelle d’évaluation du réviseur
Excellent / Excellent
Very Good / Très bon
Good / Bon
Fair / Passable
Not recommended / Pas recommandé
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