This book takes its examples from psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and couple and family treatment. Experienced therapists Winer's humanizing text helpful in putting their own work and their own ambitions in perspective. It offers a framework for living with the complexity of the therapeutic endeavor without falling prey to the practitioner's two great occupational hazards grandiosity and despair. All therapists will find Close Encounters liberating as it helps them to feel more self-accepting in the face of their difficult task of learning to make use of themselves as agents of change.

This text offers a representative sample of the work of the major contributors to object relations theory and therapy. Object relations approaches have spread form the British Isles to exert a major influence on psychoanalytic thinking throughout the world. The development of object relations thinking from its beginnings in the work of Freud is followed through its many elaborations and applications up to the most recent work in the field today. This volume can stand on its own as an overview or as an introduction to more extensive study of the subject.

Provides a practical yet sophisticated guide to the management of love and hate as they are experienced by both patient and therapist.