Book Reviews

With remarkable candor, Louis Cozolino opens with an anecdote about the client who first challenged his unquestioning faith in psychotherapeutic efficacy and shook his confidence as a clinician. Needless to say, psychotherapy is in the business of dealing with the intangible, making sense of the amorphous feelings that give rise to suffering, and, thus, this story perfectly captures the doubt that often dispirits both clients and clinicians in the healing process.

Trauma and Memory illuminates the relationship between the body, memory and emotions. Levine brings hope to trauma sufferers with somatic techniques, but also highlights the complexity of combating traumatic memory. We must take the time to better comprehend the connection between our bodies and emotions, and work towards transforming the responses associated with traumatic memories. Ultimately, Trauma and Memory is a stepping-stone towards a better understanding of the mechanisms of memory through its application of the somatic experience approach.

David Adam manages to describe his everyday experiences with OCD in an innovative and enlightening way while simultaneously intertwining his narrative with the accounts of other sufferers, theory, and scientific studies. It is a book on history, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, and religion and is an essential read for anyone who has, knows somebody with, or is simply interested in OCD.

Jeffrey Smith, MD offers his definitive self-help guide to personal change in therapy and in life. He believes that healing takes place when feelings are shared with an empathically attuned and safe other and together you will explore motivations, behaviors and places that harbor resistance to change in order to let go and grow forward.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End challenges our medical system to refocus its approach to aging, terminal illness, and death and dying. According to Atual Gawande, medical professionals' job is not to ensure health and survival but to enable well-being. Atul Gawande’s powerful presence on the page, his intimate and detailed vignettes, his humble authenticity, and his personal motivation to write this book make this a must read.

Nancy Eichhorn, PhD, offers readers a personal and in-depth review of Deep Play: Exploring the Use of Depth Psychotherapy with Children. The chapters in this startling book highlight the power of presence in play, in imagination, and in relationship.

Perhaps it’s because the contributors and editors are all Hakomi specialists, perhaps it’s because they are not just practitioners of this methodology but have sincerely immersed themselves in Hakomi’s foundational precepts personally and professionally: mindfulness, presence, loving kindness, and nonviolence. I felt as if the material was written according to the core essence of Hakomi— “assisted self-study done in a state of mindfulness”.

Bessel van der Kolk’s, The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, takes a detailed, well-researched, and multidisciplinary approach to discussing trauma and how it can be treated clinically.

Drs. Elizabeth Johnston and Leah Olson highlight the work of key researchers, describing their text as a “tasting menu that introduces the variety of delicacies available in the vibrant and growing field of emotion research” (xvi). Drawing from researchers dating back to Darwin, Johnston and Olson weave together a myriad of theories that seek to define emotion in various ways. The authors offer comprehensive coverage of what they view as the most profound contributions to affective neuroscience, hoping to engage their audience in a way that goes beyond a mere question-answer approach.

Dr. Norman Doidge, author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Brain That Changes Itself, provides an eloquent and fascinating synopsis of the current scientific understanding of the process of neuroplasticity. With lucid language, Dr. Doidge explains this complex concept with the goal of educating and enlightening patients, family, and clinicians of the many possibilities of recovery.