Schopenhauer's Porcupines - by Deborah Anna Luepnitz (Paperback)

About the Book

"Deborah Anna Luepnitz has written a masterpiece about the living, breathing relationship of psychotherapist and client."--Linda Austin, M.D., author of What's Holding You Back

Book Synopsis

The classic compilation of psychological case studies from a master clinician and lyrical writer

Each generation of therapists can boast of only a few writers likeDeborah Luepnitz, whose sympathy and wit shine in her fine, luminous prose. In Schopenhauer's Porcupines, she recounts five true stories from her practice, stories of patients who range from the super-rich to the destitute, who grapple with panic attacks, psychosomatic illness, marital despair, and sexual recklessness. Intimate, original, and triumphantly funny, Schopenhauer's Porcupines goes further than any other book in illuminating "how talking helps."

Review Quotes

"Deborah Luepnitz brings a rare grace, wisdom, and literary imagination to these moving stories of patients and therapists talking their way toward the illumination of themselves and each other."--Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Disturbances in the Field

"Drawing heavily on the work of Lacan, Winnicott, and Klein, Luepintz educates us as well, allowing us to look over her shoulder and see miracles happen."--Boston Globe

"I could not put Schopenhauer's Porcupines down. These stories illustrate how a master clinician uses complex and sophisticated theory with just the right light touch, so that it seems transparent to her patients and her readers."--Lewis Aron, PhD, Director, New York University

"Schopenhauer's Porcupines is the most affirming, original, and literate psychoanalytic work of the past thirty years."--Psychoanalytic Psychology

About the Author

Deborah Anna Luepnitz, Ph.D., is on the Clinical Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She is the author of Child Custody and The Family Interpreted, and is a contributing author to the Cambridge Companion to Lacan. She maintains a private practice in Philadelphia.