Life's betrayals both define and condemn us to re-create ourselves. Jungian analyst Aldo Carotenuto shows us the positive and fundamental role of betrayal in our growth throughout life. Betrayal visits us from the moment of birth and remains a life theme through childhood, marriage, aging, and death. It is also the foundation of the Jewish and Christian religions. Carotenuto applies the term to betray to many issues brought to psychotherapy. In psychoanalysis, many old certainties are revealed and betrayed. It is also a time when the expectations of others need to be betrayed. By...

The philosopher Emmanuel Kant speculated that a dove might think it would find flying easier without the encumbrance of air around it. He observed that such a bird would, of course, soon discover flight in a vacuum impossible.

Aldo Carotenuto here demonstrates that, like Kant's dove, the analyst cannot exclude the transference and countertransference from the analytical field--that movement toward healing is not possible without the medium of relationship, created by the interacting personalities of analyst and analysand.

Carotenuto explores this subject in historical depth,...