Addiction, Accommodation, and Vulnerability in Psychoanalysis: Circles without a Center (Relational Perspectives Book Series) 1st Edition

This is a probing, empathetic, ultimately revelatory look at the phenomenon of addiction and codependency, which gave me several insights I’d never considered before. It brilliantly uses texts from several works of literature, notably Samuel Beckett, Kafka and Camus, to help illustrate key aspects of the addict’s relationship to others, in particular would-be caregivers and therapists. Not shying away from getting personal, the author acknowledges and explores his own missteps and blind spots over the course of treatment, revealing how good intentions, combined with self-protective mechanisms, sometimes work against the very things the addict is struggling to overcome. The resulting portrait of human relationship warped by addiction is both logical and refreshingly practical in its potential applications.I have a friend who is currently a hardened addict and I can attest to the clarity with which Dr. Haber describes the challenges. While occasionally the terminology he uses (shorthand for the therapeutic community, I suspect) felt a little over my head, the overall insights, reinforced by spot-on readings of his literary sources, were all articulated with wonderful clarity and accessibility.