At times I found myself as the reader somewhat uncertain as to just what exactly this best way might be, but this is possibly a result of my inability (so far) to fully understand the carefully nuanced positions of the Doctor himself. Could any frustration experienced by me in this regard be a kind of prevenient grace meant to render me more able (in time) to comprehend?
Chapter 8 was just such an example. There I came across a metaphor that suffused my therapeutic palate, “Truing the Buckled Soul”. Ah, now we are getting down to it. What a beautiful spiritual image of the process of therapy. You have a damaged bicycle wheel, you take it to an experienced mechanic, and he firstly takes the tension out of it, then systematically goes about rebalancing the whole thing until it is round and true. Perfect!
Ah, but no, says the Doctor. There’s too much doing going on. He comments, “…therapy ‘occurs’ at the deeper level at which all such doing has ceased, that is, all doing to fix, change, straighten. In other words, therapy involves a kind of knowing, one which widens the soul to include the very things we want to fix”.
Okay, Okay. So it’s not about fixing but about including. But what then do I make of Chapter 13, where I suspect the good Doctor of setting out to ‘fix’ Freud? Chapter 13 is entitled “Breakfast at Sigismund’s: Freud Eggs and Boy con” and contains a critique of Freud’s thoughts on the Oedipus complex.