The Electrified Tightrope

by Michael Eigen, Adam Phillips

This book examines the tension, caused by the conflict between poise and catastrophe, in the therapeutic relationship. It emphasizes positive contributions to growth of self made by seemingly pathological or disruptive movements within the therapy situation.

Genres: Psychology

316 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

Reviews

[Sydney]

I'm giving this book 5* because parts of it are brilliant and expressed with laser like clarity... warning: other parts are a little verbose, overly academic and abstract. If you can get through it, it's worth it. I appreciate how precise Eigen is with his language and the book is packed full of insights. My only critique of this is the same one that I have of a lot of psychoanalytic writing: it occasionally becomes wordy, and draws enough from symbolic life that it kind of veers into projective academic poetry at times. If we're being honest though, I also enjoy projective academic poetry ;) What I loved about this book was that it offered tons of opportunities to experience empathy and to philosophically explore human intentions and behaviors as they relate to power and trauma in a clinical environment. He also made so many wonderful and unique points. Overall: I found it to be optimistic, riveting and raw. And I've never read anything quite like it.