People's lives can be dramatically transformed by psychoanalysis. Yet the decision to undertake this enterprise can seem so formidable that many deny themselves an extraordinary experience. This book makes that decision - admittedly a complex one - better informed, clearer, and easier. It provides seven detailed case reports, easy to read and free of technical jargon, in which the patients' lives -in their own judgements - were transformed. This is not meant to imply that psychoanalysis always or even usually yields transformative results. These case studies are intriguing in their own right and help the reader think knowledgeably about psychoanalysis and assess its potential as a life-changing enterprise.

Psychoanalysis: Listening to Understand contains so much wisdom and demonstrates a way of thinking that allows for growth, expansion of mind, and deep contact with psychic life. Having these articles together in one volume makes each of the ideas more vibrant as it intersects with others. Together they make the songs of inner life into an unforgettable chorus. Arlene Kramer Richards is always listening for pain, affect, experience, and unconscious fantasies and imagery with the courage it takes to believe there is more to learn. Any struggle with trying to define what psychoanalysis is could be resolved by traveling with Arlene as she thinks, explores the psyche, practices in her consulting room, teaches, supervises, and writes. The papers in this volume contain breakthrough ideas in areas of female development, perverseness of mind, creativity and poetry, and the experience of extreme loneliness. She draws us into the world of film and the layers of unconscious depicted in the dramas. She brings insight to areas of study with an eye to what others have been afraid to see. One comes away from the pages of this book knowing a lot more than they had imagined. And, even more impressively, readers will realize they now feel more able to delve further and continue learning as Arlene s voice demonstrates.