Review
"Like a book of Borges' poetry that I read in both Spanish and English, The Embedded Self brings intellectual challenge and esthetic pleasure. Any clinicians, whether systemic or psychodynamic, will find this book an enriching and thought-provoking experience."
- Salvador Minuchin, M.D., Research Professor of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center
"A brilliant and long overdue rapprochement between psychoanalysis and family therapy conceived by a practitioner trained and experienced in both modalities of treatment. Although primarily directed to psychoanalysts interested in expanding their clinical repertories, this book also offers family therapists an excellent overview of their own field."
- Edgar Levenson, M.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, William Alanson White Institute
"With an admirable sensitivity at once clinical, theoretical, and literary, Dr. Gerson explores two very different approaches to human suffering: psychoanalysis and family therapy. What distinguishes the book throughout is the richness of clinical material that is examined from different perspectives. There are few scholar-clinicians anywhere who are as qualified as Mary-Joan Gerson to undertake an exploration of this order. We are all in her debt."
- Jerome S. Bruner, Ph.D., Research Professor of Psychology, NYU
"In her masterful meditation on the figure-ground relationship between psychoanalytic and systemic thinking, Mary-Joan Gerson has brought each tradition into fresh focus, providing the clinician and theoretician alike with richly textured insights and innovative therapeutic techniques."
- Virginia Goldner, Ph.D., Senior Faculty, Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy
"This book is so outstanding an analysis of science and therapy that it is essential reading for those dealing with human suffering and trauma. It transcends psychoanalysis and family therapy both, and observes the human condition objectively and, at the same time, with compassion and warmth."
- Monty N. Weinstein, Psy.D., Readings
From the Back Cover
A brilliant and long overdue rapprochement between psychoanalysis and family therapy conceived by a practitioner trained and experienced in both modalities of treatment. Although primarily directed to psychoanalysts interested in expanding their clinical repertories, this books also offers family therapists an excellent overview of their own field.
-Edgar Levenson, M.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, William Alanson White Institute
In her masterful meditation on the figure-ground relationship between psychoanalytic and systemic thinking, Mary-Joan Gerson has brought each tradition into fresh focus, providing the clinician and theoretician alike with richly textured insights and innovative therapeutic techniques.
-Virginia Goldner, Ph.D., Senior Faculty, Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy
Mary-Joan Gerson speaks to psychoanalysts from the perspective of family therapy and to family therapists from the perspective of psychoanalysis. This dual approach brings novelty to familiar concepts and phrases. Like a book of Borges' poetry that I read in both Spanish and English, The Embedded Self brings intellectual challenge and esthetic pleasure. Any clinician, whether systemic or psychodynamic, will find this book an enriching and thought-provoking experience.
-Salvador Minuchin, M.D., Research Professor of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center With an admirable sensitivity at once clinical, theoretical, and literary, Dr. Gerson explores two very different approaches to human suffering not only to help the clinician, but also the student of the human condition in our times. What distinguishes the book throughout is a richness of clinical material that is examined from different perspectives: the author never needs reminding that life is narrative, nor that narratives illustrate theories. There are few scholar-clinicians anywhere who are as qualified as Mary-Joan Gerson to undertake an exploration of this order. We are in her debt.
-Jerome S. Bruner, Ph.D., Research Professor of Psychology, New York University
