Slouching Towards Bethlehem

By Nina Coltart

Book Overview

Filled with clinical vignettes that bring her writings to life, the book cognently addresses such disparate topics as diagnosis, the superego, and silence, as well as the important of spirituality. The title essay, which opens the book, is justly famous-a close analysis of an apparently hopeless, elderly patient, Coltart's dramatic intervention, and the remarkable resluts of the case.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1892746557
• ISBN13: 9781892746559
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Other Press (NY)
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Kind, clear, and brilliant

Respected British psychoanalyst, teacher, writer Coltart would seem to be the best kind of practitioner: brilliant, kind, and utterly humane. She's been practicing since 1972. I love these essays because she is hopeful, helpful, and very wise. Her references are her clinical practice, art, philosophy, and literature. She reads, listens, and describes -- widely and well in these essays. Rarely, she lapses into jargon (rocky reading for the lay person), but usually avoids it. Some of her topics: wordlessness and the unthinkable;the silent patient and the meanings of silence (she isn't at all afraid of it); sin and conscience; the squaring of the practice of psychoanalysis with her chosen practice of Buddhism. Coltart reveals herself to be thoughtful and remarkably humane; open to the world, and at the same time disciplined and clear in her beliefs and goals. Wonderful reading and rereading.