Schopenhauer's Porcupines: Intimacy and Its Dilemmas

In this book, the author moves deftly between playfulness and seriousness, commentary and case content, case theory and compassion. For a psychodynamic therapist, Luepnitz is unusually self-revealing, without in any way allowing her own presence to preempt the central role of her patients in their own dramas. The book made me think about Lacan some more, which was something of a surprise as he is a thinker whose work I tend to dismiss out of hand. It also helped me think about the practice of psychotherapy and the ways in which sticking to received wisdom -- as patient or therapist -- can lead to a central deadness in the work. No such danger appears to attend Luepnitz' work as presented here, and it strikes me that she must be a damn good therapist.

A beautifully written book - Luepnitz comes across as intelligent and educated, and genuinely sensitive and caring. Not at all preachy. An unusually delightful read.

With great grace and empathy, Luepnitz traces five divergent routes through the sometimes difficult process of analysis. Luepnitz' considerable training and erudition illuminate not just psychoanalytic history and theory, but the relationships of patients and their families as they evolve through analysis. The stories of her patients' progress are as richly rewarding in analytic terms as any found in Freud or Lacan, but told with more humor and consideration for the reader. (In that respect, I suspect Luepnitz has implictly situated the reader as a necessary and welcome participant in the book and the analytic process she describes--as being in another kind of relationship with the analyst/writer and patient/subject). Perhaps most impressive is Luepnitz' ability to challenge and engage those familiar with psychotherapy, while remaining accessible and rewarding to newcomers. As her wonderful chapter titles suggest ("A Darwinian Finch," "Don Juan in Trenton") Luepnitz is especially adept, aesthetically and analytically, at translating the paradoxes of the unconscious, and showing how analysis can help us understand our possibilities as well as our limitations. Her reflections on the analyst's political and social role in contemporary society are also compelling and refreshing.

Deborah Luepnitz has crafted not only an engrossing telling of five very different and revealing stories but, between the lines and around the edges, a revelation of the power of the "talking cure" of psychoanalysis in contemporary society. She helped me understand the applicability of the often obtuse Jacques Lacan and creates the wonderful image of the analyst working in a space between the teachings of Lacan and the more optimistic (I would once have thought incompatible) Donald Winnicott. An intellectual, spiritual, sweet, and often funny work.

"Schopenhauer's Pocupines" is an amazing and very human book, detailing with wisdom and sharp wit our struggle to balance desire for intimacy with an ongoing need for autonomy, even--perhaps especially!--in our most cherished relationships. Deborah Luepnitz has a graceful, witty style, and her book is chock full of insights, without being in the least bit overbearing or patronizing. The book doesn't try to be a panacea for all relationships; instead, it reveals common traits that often spoil and undermine them. I recommend the book highly.