Customer Reviews

The Shadow of the Object: Psychoanalysis of the Unthought Known

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It would prove very difficult to over-praise this wonderful book. Bollas writes with such lucidity and wit about every topic he touches that I find myself returning to these pages just to re-experience his prose. If you value psychoanalysis performed in the Winnicottian mode, then you owe it to yourself to read this book.

Bollas is a beautiful writer. This early book introduces the main themes of his writing, while avoiding the postmodern obtuseness of his some his more recent writings. A compassionate and wise observer of the human soul, he here relates his knowledge, as it has been won through the mystery and misery he has encountered.

At once amusing and heartbreakingly honest, Christopher Bollas has the ability to cut completely through the fog of ego and object attachment and promote understanding, awareness, acceptance and curiosity. This book is on my list of Life-Changing Must Haves.

Bollas is one of the most important figures in contemporary psychoanalysis and this book is the place to start. The book teems with new discoveries and striking ideas. Most important, it functions as only the best psychoanaltyic books do: it opens the reader to the discovery of their own psyche.