Behind the Couch

Drawing from his own actual encounters with patients, psychoanalyst Herbert Strean, writing with noted author Lucy Freeman, reveals for the first time the real-life anxieties, attractions, hates, exhilarations, and disappointments experienced by the analyst in practice. Using interviews with fifteen patients which reveal not only what their problems are but how these individuals related to their psychoanalyst, the book provides unusual insights into the thoughts, feelings, and dreams of one psychoanalyst as he works with his patients. The book describes in detail what psychoanalysts really think about, hour upon hour, as patients reveal their deepest personal thoughts, their childhood secrets, and their sexual fantasies. The authors delve into the impact of analysts' work on their marriages and other relationships. They also probe the personality characteristics of psychoanalysts to discover what needs in the provider are fulfilled by helping others face their terrors and primitive desires.