This book adds to the rich tradition of object relations thinking and enlivens psychotherapy.

Those already acquainted with David Scharff's incisive pioneering research into the intricacies of the relationship between self and object in all forms of therapeutic encounter will welcome this latest book. Its overall aim-to explore the origins of self from birth and throughout the life cycle by understanding the mutuality of interaction between the growing individual and the significant object of the external environment-is achieved in a masterful and intelligent manner. -- Joyce McDougall
This is at once a highly personal, and yet impeccably professional and quite original book. Dr. Scharff is willing to share with the reader those aspects of his subjective world that begin to resonate with the subjectivity of his patients, and to describe the way in which aspects of the therapist's own inner world are reclaimed in the process of struggling to comprehend that of the patient. Along the way, he has many good things to offer. Object relations theory is an area of study that is currently full of ferment, and Dr. Scharff's newest contribution to the field is certainly welcome and most highly recommended. -- Maggie Scarf
The saga of a psychotherapy process is a bittersweet tale involving a singular mixture of discovery and loss. Both parties must engage in a systematic examination of two discrete casts of characters that pass between therapist and patient through an elaborate series of projections, introjections, and reintrojections. In so doing, each member of the dyad is sadder, but wiser-impoverished, but enriched. Recognizing this dimension of clinical work, David Scharff provides a penetrating glimpse of the interface between the therapist's and patient's internal worlds in this impressive new contribution. -- Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.

David E. Scharff, M.D., is director of the Washington School of Psychiatry and chair of its Object Relations Training Program. He is also clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown and the Uniformed Services Universities.