SPT-Fall2014

Psychotherapy:
Lives
Intersecting
By Louis
Breger. 2012.
Reviewed by
Phillipe
Kleefield, New
York University
Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are
words that can conjure mixed feelings
about the usefulness of their processes,
whether they are worth the expensive
undertaking, and other similar
introspective thoughts, all of which lead
to the central question: are psychotherapy
and psychoanalysis really for me?
Whether psychoanalysis is a good choice
is the central question that I believe has
prompted and informed Louis Breger to
write his book, Psychotherapy: Lives
Intersecting. This book involves an
exploration through the lens of those
patients that he has treated in the past,
including what is unique in his
psychotherapeutic analysis, what
“worked” for his patients, and for whom
his therapy was not an ideal fit. Breger
orients his book toward patients that
might be considering psychotherapy, in
addition to other psychotherapeutic
clinicians, as a means of juxtaposing his
less orthodox, more relational form of
psychotherapy in contrast to more
traditional psychoanalysis as advocated
by theorists such as Sigmund Freud.
Through the long-term follow up of his
patients, Breger offers an insightful and
honest analysis of what his more
successful patients found important about
his therapeutic style (he also addresses
the responses of those that didn’t find him
particularly useful), allowing for readers
to carve their own path in coming to a
conclusion about whether psychotherapy
and psychoanalysis might be a useful
journey.
The final chapters of Breger’s book are
what I find to be the most important in his
book. These chapters illustrate what it is
that Breger’s psychotherapy entails and
subsequently what specifically works
about his form of psychotherapy. In
addition to the positives of his work, there
is also an account of what some didn’t
find useful. Breger believes that the
following characteristics are what makes
his form of therapy effective: stressing
not to push patients to analyze the
transference but instead come to their
own conclusions in their own time; being
a personal and open therapist; fostering a
relationship with patients such that this
relationship cures prior unhealthy
experiences; acknowledging mistakes;
disclosing of personal information as long
as it benefits the patient; having a sense
of humor; allowing for and cultivating
patients to undergo other forms of therapy
while in psychotherapy; advocating for co
-construction of insight and
interpretation; and having flexible fees.
Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting
advocates for a less orthodox model of
psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in
which the therapist doesn’t simply serve
as a projection onto which a patient can
place his own thoughts and feelings but
can also interact in a more active way.
Breger does a good job of delineating
what made his style of therapy
particularly effective; however, the reader
should come to the decision by himself or
herself of which therapeutic style would
be most useful.
Stop Eating Your
Heart Out
By Meryl Hershey
Beck. 2011.
Reviewed by:
Mona Zohny,
Hunter College
In Stop Eating Y our Heart Out, Meryl
Hershey Beck offers readers a 21-day
program that will help “release [them]
from [their] emotional dependence on
food” (xix). This self-help book is a
valuable resource for both sufferers of
eating disorders, such as binge eating
disorder (BED) and compulsive
overeating (COD), or people that want to
change their unhealthy relationship with
food. Beck is a self-proclaimed
“(recovered) food junkie” (xvi). She says
that “food was the glue that kept [her]
together” (xvi). She has also been treating
patients with BED and CO for over 20
years. Her experiences enabled her to
create a practical plan encompassing all
of the beneficial techniques she has
discovered throughout the years. This
book contains an array of tools for
dealing with emotional eating that
includes journaling, meditation, creative
visualization, energy techniques, and
conscious living.
In the first chapter, Beck tells the story of
her struggles with food. For years she was
a closet eater and yo-yo dieter. She recalls
the inception of her eating habits during
her childhood and provides insight as to
why she began over eating to fill the
emptiness inside her. This awareness was
something she had developed through her
recovery. Chapter’s Two through Eight
cover three days of the plan so that the
book progresses chronologically. Chapter
Two is about becoming self-honest.
Readers can take a mini-assessment to see
if they have emotional eating problems.
The assignments for the first three days
involve writing your eating history, which
involves reflecting on the past to see
when and how the emotional eating
began; keeping a food mood diary (for all
21 days of the program), which includes
writing down all food eaten along with
your mood at the time and the relevant
circumstances; and keeping a journal
since the focus of this book is the
emotional aspects of overeating. The
remaining chapters discuss finding
support, spirituality, energy techniques,
going within (oneself), personal
housecleaning, conscious living, and a
review, respectively. Beck approaches the
issue of emotional eating from every
angle.
Throughout the book, she touches upon
the influence Alcoholic Anonymous
groups have had on support groups for
eating problems, since emotional eating
can be considered a food addiction.
These 12-step programs have influenced
the program that Beck has developed in
this book. She uses some of the same
activities including a simplified version
of a moral inventory assignment used in
AA groups, which involves taking a look
at “character traits that have outlived their
usefulness” in order to free oneself from
them (p. 141).
Another interesting concept that Beck
learned about during a 12-step program is
the idea of one’s Inner Child. The Inner
Child is a “metaphor for the precious
child we all were who often had
unexpressed feelings and unmet
needs” (p. 115). The assignments
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2014 | Volume 4 Number 2 | page 104