Fifty minute Hour [Paperback]

Robert Lindner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 1999

“A fascinating mixture of traditional psychoanalytic thinking with clinical strategies that even today would be considered creative and controversial, The Fifty-Minute Hour has never failed to capture the imagination. . . . No student’s education in psychotherapy is complete without reading this book. Decades after its original publication, it still stands as a pioneering landmark in the history of psychotherapy.”-John Suler

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

"I have written these tales from psychoanalysis to share with my readers some of the experiences I have had in pursuing what must surely be one of the strangest of all occupations. From a literally inexhaustible storehouse of material that increases each day, I have chosen a handful of stories that seem to me to illustrate something of the adventure of this fabulous profession, something of its romance and much of its practical detail. The common element in all of these tales is the self of the analyst. Each story deals finally with deployment of that self in the therapeutic enterprise, the adventures that befall it, and the effects exerted upon it by the actors and situations described." Robert Lindner

About the Author

Dr. Robert M. Lindner

Dr. Robert M. Lindner was the author of numerous seminal texts on psychoanalysis, including The Fifty-Minute Hour (Other Press edition 2002) and Must You Conform? He died in 1956 at the height of his career.


Jonathan Lear

Jonathan Lear is John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor at the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy at The University of Chicago. He is the author of Aristotle: The Desire to Understand and Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: Other Press; 1 edition (June 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892746247
• ISBN-13: 978-1892746245
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The paths of psychotherapy, December 8, 2001

By 

lanoitan (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fifty-Minute Hour (The Delt Diamond library) (Paperback)

I have been doing psychotherapy for years and always find it fascinating to see how childhood experiences lead to the development of problems. There are lots of books about the theories, but the actual cases always seem much more striking to me. This book is fun to read if you are interested in looking at these kind of connections. I wish there were more books about this, but the subject seems to be out of vogue these days although people still have as many psychogenic problems as ever. I don't particularly like the books that make case material like this too artistic and flowery; this book describes the characters to the point. The examples part of "The Road Less Traveled" was also good in the same way.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic account, October 6, 2003

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Fifty minute Hour (Paperback)

This book was the culmination of the phenomenon of the "writing psychotherapist," when Freudian psychoanalysis was still at the height of its popularity and psychoanalysts were regarded as intrepid explorers of inner space with prestige virtually on a par with rocket scientists and physicists. Many of the analyst-writers who were popular during this period have long since been forgotten, such as H.A. Overstreet, and his book, The Great Enterprise, but Lindner's has become an enduring classic of the field. No doubt most of that relates to his choice of fascinating cases to detail, such as one about the brilliant physicist who concocted an entire science-fictional world which he inhabited in the chapter, "The Jet-Propelled Couch," and which enthralled readers of the book. The book likely would not have nearly the same impact today, but Freud's popularity had not yet waned, and was helped out by dramatic movies with superstar casts, such as Gregory Peck's 1965 movie, Mirage, and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, in which Freudian analysts were portrayed as heroes engaged in life and death battles with the dark forces of the unconscious. Overall still a classic in the field, and Lindner's fascinating and dramatic accounts of these cases still make for interesting reading.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fifty Minute Hour, June 11, 2000

By 

Christina Acosta (Hollywood Hills, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fifty minute Hour (Paperback)

I highly recommend this book. The author tells about his most interesting patients and how he treated them. He takes you through each case as he is going through it, which I find facinating. He even acknowledges his fears and anxieties. I read this book years ago and still remember it fondly. I am anxious to read it again. I like the fact that the author writes as if he is an old friend telling you a series of mesmerizing stories. He also writes without a superiority complex, which I find refreshing.