Book Review
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| The Flesh of the Soul: The Body we Work with. Heller, Michael (ed.): Bern: Peter Lang. 2001 ISBN 3-906764-98-2 To order copies for your school/association www.peterlang.net This book came out of the 1999 EABP conference held in Travemünde. Those who attended theconference will remember the richness of the interdisciplinary focus and the food for thought provided by many of the plenary speakers. The focus of the conference and this volume, as the blurb will tell you, is on “how the bodily dimension can be linked with theories that are used in psychotherapy and it allows readers to get an overview of major trends in the field”. The publication date (2001) of the book may seem late for a conference held in 1999 but it reflects the careful editing that went on and the organisation of what became so much more than just a fewconference papers cobbled together. Other papers have been added and the book is organised in such a way that rich synchronic and diachronic veins pulsate through the volume. It is fascinating to be able to read in one section (which represent those articles which are to be found in Bodily Avenue according, to the editor) articles in which we hear clearly the voices and personal styles of Gerda Boyesen, Malcolm Brown, Will Davis and Fritz-Albert Popp. A section with titles alerting us to “graceful means and felt gestures”, “in search of the embodied self”, “the psychotherapists body”, “the basic experiences of the self” and “maps ofexperience”, by contributors such as Maarten Aalberse, Gustl Marlock and Halko Weiss, Bjørn Blumenthal, Luciano Rispoli and Jerome Liss, brings us to those who often work in what Michael Heller calls Psychological Avenue, who saw the need to reintegrate contemporary psychology in Body-Psychotherapy. The section entitled “non-conscious multiplicities” with articles by Al Pesso, Christine Caldwell, Michael Heller (co-authoring with Veronique Haynel Raymond, Andre Haynal and Marc Archinard) and Siegfried Frey contains many nuggets of inspiration for practice, training and supervision. There is an introduction by Michael Heller (who also provided the useful footnotes to many of the articles) on how he sees the issues and George Downing has been given space to make his own comments on what struck him. But don’t leave it to them - everyone should go and find what stimulates them from this volume. It contains rich bibliographies referring to works in languages other than English. It represents the European nature of those working in the field. It should be in every training institution library. It provides a vital perspective for trainees of all approaches. It’s just interesting on so many levels and a fine achievement. I think Michael Heller deserves our thanks for producing this book and I hope he gets the chance to produce more. Alison Duguid |
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