The therapeutic process requires both the willingness to be vulnerable and the capacity to tolerate it despite the risks involved. Martin S. Livingston reminds us that it is not just the patient who needs to take these risks, but the therapist as well. Those clinicians who avoid vulnerability via the protective detachment of their professional role cannot engage in a fully responsive, emotionally present way to the fragile, often fleeting, moments when both anxiety and openness to change are greatest. LivingstonOs focus on narcissistic vulnerability and its power to transform in psychotherapy comes alive in the bookOs abundant and vivid clinical examples. Material from individual, group, and couples treatment demonstrates how attention to the vicissitudes of this important aspect of the therapeutic process can have a profound impact. This is a deeply felt and beautifully written tribute to the bravery of patients and therapists alike in their very human search for connection.

Martin S. Livingston, Ph.D., is a training analyst, faculty member, and supervisor at several psychoanalytic institutes in New York City. He is also co-chair of the Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology.