The practical execution of crisis intervention in psychotherapeutic practice.

Verena Kast schildert, wie im Rahmen der Psychotherapie Imagination im Zusammenhang mit Albtraumen als Emotionsregulierung wirken und kreative Fantasien wecken kann. Das Arbeiten mit der Imagination ist hierbei durchsetzt von therapeutischen Interventionen, mit dem Blick darauf, Imaginationen der Angst in Imaginationen uberzufuhren, die Zukunft ermoeglichen, kreativ und oft mit Ansatzen von Freude verbunden sind. Ein klinisches Beispiel zeigt, wie eine Analytikerin mit den Albtraumen der Analysandin auch die kreativen Aspekte der Imagination bearbeitet und so einen Zugang zu ihrer Ressource herstellt.

In what is often called her most important book, Verena Kast examines the role of mourning in the therapeutic process. Working as a psychotherapist, Kast has often observed depressive illnesses caused by painful losses, which have not been adequately mourned. Traditionally, mourning has not been a subject of psychologists attention. The author uses dreams to illustrate the stages of mourning and shows systematically how the unconscious stimulates us to encounter our grief. Mourning marks an end but it also fosters personal growth. It is a time of renewal, a time for incubation, for introspection, for going into oneself to gather strength, as a seed goes deep into the earth to find the resources for striving toward the light.

Verena Kast refers to Sisyphus as the "myth of the forty-year-olds," who often experience their lot in life to be a Sisyphus task. Are our human efforts all in vain, or is there some meaning to be found? In the end, it is a struggle with death itself. Dr. Kast interprets everyday events, fairy tales and psychotherapy issues in light of the Sisyphus theme, rendering it a kaleidoscope through which we can look deeply into ourselves. Verena Kast deals with a problem that also fascinated Nietzsche and Freud. This book is packed with down-to-earth experience, clinical anecdotes, wit and insight. - Murray Stein

"Emotion is an expression of the self," Verena Kast writes in this study of the neglected emotions of joy, inspiration, and hope. "If we decide we no longer want to hide behind empty shells, then we will have to allow certain emotions more room. We will have to let ourselves laugh louder, cry louder, and shout for joy." Kast makes the case that not only therapists and analysts but also individuals seeking growth in their own lives should give more attention to the elated emotions. Fear of excess (mania) and analytic preoccupation with grief, anxiety, and depression have together caused joy and hope to be shunned as a focus in individuation (the process toward wholeness). Joy answers the human need for elated feeling and meaning in our lives, a need that is often filled in modern society by secularized parodies of religious ecstasy, such as addiction and compulsiveness. Kast suggests simple techniques for recapturing our joy through development of an autobiography of joy. Using this approach, we can discover what gives us joy personally, how we can best experience joy, and how and why we choke off our joy. By viewing joy, inspiration, and hope as core emotions in our being, we open ourselves to greater wholeness and fuller life.