The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life [Hardcover]

Daniel N. Stern (Author)

Book Description

Series: Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology | Publication Date: January 15, 2004

While most psychotherapies agree that therapeutic work in the 'here and now' has the greatest power to bring about change, few if any books have ever addressed the problem of what 'here and now' actually means.

Beginning with the claim that we are psychologically alive only in the now, internationally acclaimed child psychiatrist Daniel N. Stern tackles vexing yet fascinating questions such as: what is the nature of 'nowness'? How is 'now' experienced between two people? What do present moments have to do with therapeutic growth and change?

Certain moments of shared immediate experience, such as a knowing glance across a dinner table, are paradigmatic of what Stern shows to be the core of human experience, the 3 to 5 seconds he identifies as 'the present moment.' By placing the present moment at the center of psychotherapy, Stern alters our ideas about how therapeutic change occurs, and about what is significant in therapy. As much a meditation on the problems of memory and experience as it is a call to appreciate every moment of experience, The Present Moment is a must-read for all who are interested in the latest thinking about human experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Stern's attention to the present moment is a theoretically important contribution, with far-ranging implications for therapeutic technique. (Psychologist-Psychoanalyst APA Division 39, Karen Zelan)

Book Description

Stern's attention to the present moment is a theoretically important contribution, with far-ranging implications for therapeutic technique.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (January 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393704297
• ISBN-13: 978-0393704297
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful but rushed, September 5, 2004

By 

Charlie Sandover "Sandover" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life (Hardcover)

The hardback edition of this book is filled to the limit with spelling and gramatical errors; who edited it? The sloppiness takes away from an interesting, if occasionally dull, perspective about how change occurs in small moments of shifting awareness of self and other. Stern seems unsure of his audience and so his book falls somewhere between being suitable for the general reader or geared towards the professional.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to read, November 29, 2010

By 

Dormidont (Redmond WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (Kindle Edition)

The book is very dense and difficult to understand. The title is very appealing but the content of the book is very intellectual. When I bought the book I was looking for practical ideas to focus on the present moment in psychotherapy. It was difficult for me to stay engaged and interested. I resorted to flipping pages then giving up on it.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful and inspiring book by an original thinker, November 5, 2007

By 

E. Saarinen (Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life (Hardcover)

A stunningly fundamental book. Full of insight, suggestive perspectives, inspiring crystallizations. A research-based account of the psychology of the present moment with far-reaching consequences for our concept of ourselves, for intersubjectivity and for philosophy of life.

Key concepts: subjective experience, experience as it is lived, the moment of meeting, microanalytic interview, implicit knowledge, temporal dynamics, vitality affects, the present moment, the now moment, a lived story, intentions, intentional-feeling-flow, the intersubjective matrix, the mutual interpenetration of minds, mirror neurons, conscousness, intersubjective consciousness, sharing, intersubjective orienting, sloppiness in cocreation, the moving along process, a shared feeling voyage, change.

"This book is about subjective experience - especially experiences that lead to change.... The idea of presentness is the key." (p. xiii)