This groundbreaking book offers an exciting proposal for approaching therapeutic work from a perspective that emphasizes the feminine principle of holding and containment, while also recognizing a necessary place for the masculine. Sullivan demonstrates the real possibility of an integrated practice with the potential to heal both men and women.

Barbara Sullivan grew up in New York City where she studied at the School of Performing Arts. She attended Stanford University and the University of Michigan, and was certified as a Jungian analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.

Barbara Stevens Sullivan’s finely honed argument challenges her readers to look again at the power of the feminine in the therapeutic process. Her frank discussions of interactions in her own office stimulate similar depths of honesty in us. Much to ponder here! -Marion Woodman

This is a pioneering book-original, challenging, and exciting. It belongs on the desk of every psychotherapist. Sullivan’s female approach must be the foundation for the psychotherapy of tomorrow. She demonstrates a commitment to humanity, to life, and to the future which is the only possible hope for the continuance of life on this planet. This is the most important book on psychotherapeutic process that I have read in fifty years. -Joseph Wheelwright

This book presents an important perspective clearly, with both intelligence and feeling. It synthesizes and critiques a wide variety of theoretical perspectives from a base of sensitively assimilated clinical experience. I especially appreciated the many revelations of the reality of the psyche as it opens itself to be seen and creatively lived in the contemporary consulting room. Sullivan’s approach to psychotherapy is open to each client’s particular needs, neither bound by doctrinaire limitations nor loosely or thoughtlessly permissive. -Sylvia Brinton Perera

Barbara Stevens Sullivan integrates object relations and Jungian theoretical orientations in a passionate approach to the real clinical situation that should interest any practicing therapist. She knows her stuff well (in so far as it is stuff which can be known). The clinical material is brilliant-accessible, clearly described, and quite open to discussion and debate. -Andrew Samuels

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Feminine Principle

Chapter 2 The Art of Psychotherapy

Chapter 3 The Archetypal Foundations of the Therapeutic Process

Chapter 4 Psychotherapy Grounded in the Feminine Principle

Chapter 5 The Role of the Masculine

Chapter 6 An Archetypal Perspective

Chapter 7 Two Clinical Examples

Chapter 8 The Disliked Patient