{"product_id":"body-and-soul-ellis-amdur-9781534904583","title":"Body and Soul: Toward a Radical Intersubjectivity in Psychotherapy","description":"Therapy is a dialogue\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe first two chapters of this small book are an inquiry into the nature of psychotherapy, an asymmetric dialogue, where one person, the therapist, literally attends to another. \u003c\/strong\u003eWeaving together overlapping perspectives from Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Buber, Amdur asserts that the greatest gifts of therapy arise from a fundamental \u003cstrong\u003eestrangement\u003c\/strong\u003e from each other. The realization of this unbridgeable distance, however close we may be, is a profound shock that gives birth to a genuine relationship, comprised of two beings, two bodies, not merging into one. It is the maintenance of separation that allows, in every dialogue, the birth of something new and unique in the world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe chapters that follow bring these rarified notions to earth, through accounts of two therapeutic relationships: one, with an achingly melancholic man, so wounded that improvement was meaningless to him; the second, with a man struggling with anguish, his psychosis torturing him into a rage, in which others must die to pay for what he believed was done to him. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEllis Amdur here strips psychotherapy of all technique and jargon. He asserts that it must be, at core, a willingness to wrestle with the unanswerable questions--through which two beings can engage in therapeutic dialogue and change can occur: \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat of my death? \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat of yours? \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat of my life? \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat of yours? \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is an unusual combination of lyric philosophical writing and harsh humanity, reeking, at times, of flesh and pain, yet finding, at other moments, traces of beauty, kindness, even love. There are no cures here, because some wounds may never heal. Nonetheless, a person's integrity and unassailable dignity is to be found in stark moments where two people receive the ultimate in human gifts: the realization that we are always two, not one, and therefore, never alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ellis Amdur\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1534904581\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781534904583\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Createspace Independent Publishing Platform\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/13\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 112\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.31lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.23d","brand":"Ellis Amdur","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43985606443263,"sku":"9781534904583","price":9.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bdc1f4d5-8e5c-4030-9958-f6f3210df5a7.jpg?v=1683278508","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/body-and-soul-ellis-amdur-9781534904583","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}