Healing Conversation

Neville Symington is a member of the British and Australian Psychoanalytical Societies. His books include 'Narcissism: A New Theory', 'The Making of a Psychotherapist', 'A Pattern of Madness' and 'Becoming a Person Through Psychoanalysis' (all published by Karnac Books); 'The Analytic Experience', and 'The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion' (written with Joan Symington). He has a private psychoanalytic practice in New South Wales, Australia.

• 1 The question: an intellectual solution 2 The meaning of emotion 3 Emotional development 4 Communication and emotion 5 Communication and representation 6 The case of pseudo-maturity

'The question is this: how is it that a person who has a problem is able to resolve it through conversation with another? Symington's answer rests upon Einstein's insight: some relations are of the essence of the things related. Symington's relational account of persons challenges our conventional understanding to the breaking point: by reconceptualizing emotions, persons and human relations, we break through to a brilliant new way of understanding the work of psychiatrists and psychotherapists. One must expect that Symington's relational account of persons will affect our psychiatry as deeply as Einstein's work affected our physics.'- Dr Peter March, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia'Neville Symington's ideas of how a dialogue can heal are radical and profound. Written without jargon or portentousness, this book learnedly, yet clearly, explores the ways in which honest and open human interaction can be deeply restorative. It is above all a humane book, intelligent, well-written, and credible and yet its theme is a very simple one, without ever being simple-minded. It deserves to become a classic in the evolving story of how words spoken between two people can enlighten and cure.'- Salley Vickers, Author of Miss Garnet's Angel