Kernberg's treatment model reflects an approach to the therapy of borderline patients that is based upon ego psychology-object relations conceptualization, that is, a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy that relies on interpretatio of the transference. The aim of the treatment, he states, is to "enhance the patient's ability to experience self and others as coherent, integrated, realistically perceived individuals, and to reduce the need to use defenses that weaken ego structure by reducing the repertoire of available responses."

He covers all the bases, with clarity and authority -- the Principles of Treatment, the Phases of Treatment, and Common Complications. The book ranges from theoretical to very didactic -- there's a chapter called "Conducting a Session" that is very illuminating. Kernberg, who is an expert in the field, doesn't let you down in this instructive book on a notorously difficult subject. What strikes me most about his book, and about him, are his hard-hitting clarifications, confrontations and interpretations.

To one patient he says, "I am impressed by your telling me that you shared your new slides with the very person you have been suspecting of plagiarizing other researchers' work."

To another he says, "I think you have been trying to provoke me into an argument in order to protect yourself against the emergence of sexual fantasies about me. What do you think about this?"

To another, "Whipping prostitutes and acting tough with me have similar functions..."

One gets the idea that he is relentless in pursuit of therapeutic healing. You can read his book and learn, but the question is, can you do the actual therapy as he does.

I highly recommend this book for an understanding of the treatment of borderlines -- the challenges, the goals, the actualities of the treatment room, the countertransference pitfalls and opportunities, the intense, chaotic transferences, and the forms of resistance.

Published in German in 1930, this book was poorly translated in 1950 but influenced writers like Ernest Becker and Ira Progoff. This is the first complete translation of a work which places soul and will in historical context from the standpoint of Freud's once-closest colleague. Introduction by E. J. Lieberman, author of _Acts of Will: The Life and Work of Otto Rank_.

This collection of talks given by psychologist Otto Rank in the U.S. is the best introduction to a major 20th century thinker. Less gifted as a writer than as a conversationalist, Rank has not won a large following with his other books, important as they are. His break with Freud put him on the psychoanalytic "enemies" list, but Rank's thinking anticipates much of what is now mainstream: here-and-now, relationship, will, creativity. Editor Robert Kramer has done a great job. --E. James Lieberman

This book is a very useful manual that helps you to install the unevitable treating contract with bordeline patients which is a necessary frame. The manual provides you with clear instructions on how to set priorities when it comes to troubles (acting-out). And it helps you to develop the feeling when to interprete in terms of transference. Analysts who are used to wait very long until they react actively may be irritated; but no psychotherapist involved in the toil's work with severe borderline conditions can afford to ignore this modern, lively and considerate point of application. This work is the psychoanalytic counterpart, and challenge to Marsha Linehan's famous behavioristic studies on treating the self-destructive and acting-out borderline patient.

This book is billed as a "consumer's guide to the ins and outs of therapy." The Ehrenbergs provide a frank, down-to-earth discussion of practical issues relating to psychotherapy. Most books on therapy are devoted to explaining various theoretical approaches. The Ehrengergs go far beyond that in their book. They tackle practical issues such as how to select a therapist, how to help make therapy work for you, and how to judge whether therapy is doing you any good. They also discuss mundane but important details such as fees, insurance, missed sessions, and emergency phone calls. The Ehrenbergs' goal is to make therapy less intimidating and mysterious. They succeed handsomely in this endeavor.

Now with a new introduction by Dario Melossi, Punishment And Social Structure by Georg Rusche and Otto Kirchheimer offers significant scholarship in the study of criminology, and one that traces the origin of its ideas to an article written by Georg Rusche in 1933, entitled "Labor Market and Penal Sanction: Thoughts on the Sociology of Criminal Justice". Expanding on the original article's ideas to classify the history of crime into three primary eras - early Middle Ages with emphasis on penance and fines, later Middle Ages marked by severe corporal and capital punishment, and the seventeenth century with its development of the prison system, Punishment And Social Structure is an involving essay about the foundation of society and its treatment of miscreants and a strongly recommended addition to professional and academic Law, Jurisprudence, Penology, and Criminology Studies reference collections and reading lists.

Dr Irene E. Loewenfeld dedicated her life to the study of the pupil, the body's most exquisite esthesiometer. This monograph is a knowledgeable feast in the ophthalmological tradition of Sir Duke Elder, author of the most comprehensive known medical treatise in all fields, except perhaps for Vinken' manual of neurology which is not the work of a single person. If I only wished this glorious tradition were continued, after we shall take no more time to dedicate our lives to knowledgeable fields of study, I would be unaware of the Zeigeist, apparingly dead since Dr Loewenstein's disappearance.

Dear Sir,

Batten, Alan Henry : 'Resolute and Undertaking Characters - The Lives of Wilhelm and Otto Struve'. 1988. ISBN 90277 26523.

Please, do you have this book in store (for shure?). If so, I want to by a copy. Please make contakt right away.

Jan Weis Skolevej 16, Nordby DK-6720 Fanoe Denmark

This book discusses in detail the organ compositions and their performance of the Swedish composer Otto Olsson (1879-1964), who is - unfortunately - not well known outside Sweden, but clearly deserves so. Mr. Jullander examines all aspects of performance, such as proper tempo, registration, articulation etc. in trying to establish guidelines/rules for performing these compositions as Otto Olsson would have done it. He also gives a complete list of Olsson's organ compositions, of which only a part has been published. For someone playing Olsson's works, this book is a must.

In keeping with their tradition of providing the highest quality books on shamanism the International Society for Shamanistic Research (ISTOR) has produced another fascinating volume of essays. This time the collection consists of twenty-four essays focused on the theme of shamanic ritual and the performing arts. Although the essays were originally talks given at the second conference of ISTOR celebrated in 1993 in Budapest, Hungary, they are far from the dull academic treatises that one might expect from such a scholarly venue. Quite the contrary, you will find them uniformly well written and entertaining, at times even controversial, for instance when the question of the shaman's'role as 'performer' is raised and debated by the author Jonathan Horowitz in his discussion of "The Absence of 'Performance' in the Shamanic Rite'. Among my other favorites were the discussion by Eleanor Ott of "Ethnics and the Neo-Shamanism", a thought-provoking foray into the post-modern world of shamanic performance and healing ceremonies; Carla Corradi Musi's discussion of the shaman-actor in the Finno-Ugric area in relationship to ritual theatre; and Isabel's Horváth's comparison of a set of Hungarian and Turkic folktales.

And then I can't help mentioning the fact that the collection brings together what are unquestionably essays from the best and the brightest among those dedicated to bringing authentic ethnographic materials to the attention of the reading public. For example, anyone interested in gaining an in-depth understanding traditional shamanism will want to examine Tae-gon Kim's introductory chapter on the symbolic Ur-meaning of shamanism and the performing arts along with Robert Hamayon's contribution concerning 'trance' ecstasy and related concepts in the study of shamanism. For anyone with a flare for ethnomusicology the essay by Du Yaxiong comparing ancient Hungarian folk songs and the shamanic songs of the minorities of North China is a must read along with Liu Gui-teng's remarkable discussion of the intricacies of the musical instruments used in Manchurian shamanic sacrificial rituals. Finally, I can't omit mentioning the essays by other stellar figures in shamanic studies such as Ake Hulthkranz on the shaman in myths and folktales as well as the contributions of Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer on the poetry of shamanism and Julia Pentikäinen on the reawakening of shamanism in the contemporary north, Siberia, along with the essay by the co-editor of the volume Mihály Hoppál dealing with the relationship between performing shamanism and certain manifestations of the same in Siberian rock art. These are essays that are so filled with insights you will inevitably go back to read many of them more than once. In closing, I'd recommend this volume very highly not only because of the variety and depth of the essays in it, but also because it gives you an opportunity to get to know many of the major investigators in the field, the real experts on traditional shamanism, as well as to tune into some of the latest controversies in the field. Having said that, I would ask you to keep in mind that many of the authors whose contributions are included in the book have also written their own books or edited other collections of essay on shamanism. In short, this book lets you get to know some of the major experts in this emerging field.