Hands of the Living God

by Marion Milner

Book by Milner, Marion

Genres: Psychoanalysis, Psychology

444 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1969

Reviews

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly eye-opening account of what using psychoanalytic theories of the psychosexual stages can look like in psychotherapy. It made me realize that I haven't really understood before now what the meaning and power of those stages can be - how our experiences of our bodies (sphincters, movement of fluids, mouth feelings and tongue movements) when we are infants shapes our understanding of our emotions and the reality of others. I've always felt pretty dismissive of that dimension of early psychoanalytic theory, and I think I kind of get it now.

Milner's writing also anticipates much of what Eugene Gendlin was doing in his thinking-at-the-edge style of Focusing. It makes me wonder if there was any overlap in their lives. Milner's writing could be viewed as a compelling marriage of classic psychoanalysis / object relations and Gendlin's concept of the Felt Sense.

I get why people get spooked by this stuff - the emphasis on boobs and poop is a challenge. And it all feels almost like it's tethered to nothing. Even still. Something happened with Milner's patient, Susan, and I think that Milner's ability to hold her through so many years, and so much unclarity, is something I will be metabolizing for years.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was horrible and does not accurately represent the process of art therapy. The therapist spends the whole book interpreting the patient's thoughts and drawings to mean something about her desire to suck at her mother's breast, to play with her feces or her repressed memories of being in the womb. This is total garbage, every moment was agony. I only finished it because I have to write a paper on it for school. Do not read this waste of paper.