Breakdown and Breakthrough: Psychotherapy in a New Dimension

Nathan Field reassesses the role of the therapist, tracing psychotherapy back to its earliest spiritual roots and comparing modern analytic methods with ancient practices of healing and exorcism. Using vivid examples from his psychotherapeutic practice, Field shows how, with the apparent breakdown of the therapeutic method itself, patients can break through to a new level of functioning. The book goes on to consider the impact on psychotherapy of fundamental developments in scientific thinking. Taking up the radical vision originally proposed by Jung and later fostered by psychotherapists such as Winnicott and Bion, Field shows how psychotherapy can be reframed to admit the existence of a psychological fourth dimension. How this new perspective will reshape psychotherapy in the twenty-first century is a challenge that practitioners, teachers and trainees must all address.