The Only Cure

Reviews / Votes

A wide-ranging and engrossing defence of Freud as a scientist and a healer . . . It would be difficult to improve on Solms's credentials for the task he sets himself . . . He is also a wonderfully witty and lucid writer . . . Deeply moving case histories of patients [. . .] show that at the heart of psychoanalytic practice is an empathy that enables patients to detoxify their experiences . . . Solms has nudged the attitude of this sceptic -- Raymond Tallis * GUARDIAN * This is an extraordinary book on so many different levels. It's a dramatic history of psychoanalysis, a reassessment of Freud, a fascinating and moving autobiography, and a compelling argument for rethinking the place of feelings and subjectivity within the framework of science. And hence it's also about caring, and nurture - and love. How minds change is the question at the centre of this book. It's changing mine -- BRIAN ENO, producer, composer and artist Refreshing . . . Solms makes his case interestingly, sincerely and with passion * Sunday Times * The book succeeds powerfully in its central aim: to undermine the claim that psychoanalysis is unscientific. By demonstrating how closely contemporary neuroscience aligns with Freud's core insights, Solms reframes psychoanalysis not as an outdated rival to biology, but as its necessary partner . . . Psychoanalysis is lucky to have Mark Solms in its corner * British Journal of Psychiatry * A scholarly masterpiece, written by the world's greatest living authority on Freud - the Editor of the Revised Standard Edition, and founder of the Neuropsychoanalysis movement. The origin story of Freudian ideas is introduced in forensic and fascinating detail and developed carefully in light of - evidence-based - 21st-century insights into mind and brain. It is also a deeply personal narrative, reflecting the author's good citizenship, clinical compassion and capacity to critique the fundamentals of psychoanalysis. There is so much to be learned in these pages -- KARL J. FRISTON, the world's most cited neuroscientist Solms made a really compelling case that the origin of consciousness is with feelings, not thoughts. Feelings are the language in which the body talks to the brain . . . I'm convinced -- MICHAEL POLLAN * New York Times * The Only Cure is scholarly, historical and surprising. It is peppered with good translations of Freud and argues well for his relevance to modern-day understanding of the brain. My speciality, cognitive neuroscience, may have neglected him. Here, then, is a book about psychoanalysis for those interested in neuroscience, and a book about neuroscience for those interested in psychoanalysis. Either way, it gives Freud a new lease of life * Times Literary Supplement * The Only Cure illuminates the deeper origins of our symptoms - how they arise, why they persist, and the protective purpose behind them. With clarity and compassion, Dr. Solms weaves neuroscience with lived experience to show that real healing begins with insight into our earliest emotional patterns -- NICOLE LEPERA, author of the international bestsellers How to Do the Work and How to Be the Love You Seek Because of the author's unusual combination of expertise, The Only Cure provides many insights that are unique. The case descriptions are interesting and engaging. The science behind them is vast. It's an awesome book - a must-read for anyone involved in or interested in mental health -- CRISTINA ALBERINI, Professor of Neuroscience at NYU, who demonstrated how early life experiences affect brain development Solms shows how Freud's deepest insights are being vindicated by modern brain science. Bridging neuroscience and psychotherapy, he argues that psychoanalysis remains the only truly curative treatment for many mental disorders. Really an inspiring read -- VITTORIO GALLESE, co-discoverer of the mirror neuron Solms appears to have literally brought Freud back to life in this page-turner of a book . . . A must-read for every beginning and senior psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, neurologist, psychologist, therapist, and psychoanalyst -- DANIEL W. PREZANT, President of the American Psychoanalytic Association Anyone paying close attention to the field of psychoanalysis will be aware of the breathtakingly revolutionary contributions of Mark Solms. Moving deftly between personal narrative and psychoanalytic and neuroscientific knowledge, The Only Cure makes these groundbreaking discoveries accessible while also placing them in a historical context. An impressive feat -- NUAR ALSADIR, author of Animal Joy and featured psychoanalyst on Showtime's Couples Therapy Provides nothing less than an empirical basis for the reenchantment of psychology - upending decades of scientific reductionism and returning human emotion to where it should always have been: at the very heart of the matter. It has the rare quality of being both an act of scholarship and an act of love -- KEIRAN GODDARD, author of I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning Solms's arguments feel intensely personal, and are born of both essential human compassion and a lifetime's work. The result is a deeply thought-provoking book, written with the kind of care he advocates for his patients -- SOPHIE ELMHIRST, author of Maurice and Maralyn Sigmund Freud invented psychotherapy, a treatment that now has global reach, but why and how does the talking cure work? Mark Solms mingles the poignant, fascinating, sometimes harrowing stories of his psychoanalytic patients, as well as stories from his own life, with scientific research, past and present, which together illuminate Freud's original insights into the workings of brain and mind. Lucid, confiding, incisive, erudite, and often funny, Solms is the perfect guide for any reader curious about what it means to heal the ailing self -- SIRI HUSTVEDT, author of What I Loved Mark Solms has shifted something irrevocably with his profound and enlightening book, revealing Freud's work in a thrilling - and moving - new way. Vital for anyone interested in how a mind is made, and will be a comfort to those of us who have felt forced into one or another defining camp -- MEGAN NOLAN, author of Ordinary Human Failings What begins as a rehabilitation of Freud from the perspective of neuroscience becomes a quietly radical statement of the need both to give and to receive care. It's that rare thing: a book that's actually necessary -- JESSIE GREENGRASS, author of The High House A fascinating psychoanalytical and neuroscientific journey . . . Solms deserves great thanks for this clinically and theoretically profound positioning of psychoanalysis in the canon of contemporary science -- HERIBERT BLASS, president of the International Psychoanalytical Association An authoritative and surprisingly personable account of the neuroscience behind the talking cure. This is a book I've been waiting to read for years -- ORLANDO READE, author of What In Me Is Dark A brave book, that explains the complex dance between what we're aware of and all the things that move below consciousness. It describes the choreography both from inside the mind, with the language of psychoanalysis, and also from the outside, in the language of neuroscience. Solms draws us wonderfully into this heady swirl -- WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, artist and director of the animated film series, Drawings for Projection Offers a candidly argued defense of a regrettably overlooked idea: that in dealing with the universe of the human mind, sane as well as sick, a subjective perspective is indispensable. But Solms quietly achieves something no less important: he reminds us that Freud was a biologist and, wonder of wonders, that his ideas are part of the foundation of neuroscience -- ANTONIO DAMASIO, author of Descartes' Error Mark Solms brings his magisterial mind to Freud and those who followed in the quest to understand us human subjects. What Freud was arguing in the late 19th century is now the preoccupation of much neuroscience, albeit, often unacknowledged. Great thinkers need great explicators and Solms does an excellent job of linking developments in neuroscience, philosophy and psychoanalysis enabling us to more deeply understand human subjectivity. It is a great achievement -- SUSIE ORBACH, author of In Therapy A tour de force, that weaves philosophical, scientific, and personal history into a powerful case for the value of Sigmund Freud's seminal scientific and clinical work for modern neuroscience and psychiatric care. Moving through and beyond anti-psychoanalytic Freud-bashing rhetoric, Solms offers an astonishing account of relevant brain science that exposes the limits of psychopharmacology and points toward a research methodology and mental health approach that incorporates subjectivity. A clinical case bookends the work and demonstrates the enduring truth that the only cure for mental suffering is the one that discovers and addresses its subjective causes -- HARRIET WOLFE, former president of the International Psychoanalytical Association