Dr. Santostefano’s latest work, Guided Enactments in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, like his earlier clinical texts, is a must-read book for any clinician. This is a well-integrated work that incorporates theory, empirical research, and therapeutic case studies, to make a strong evidence-based case for the central importance of bodily experiences (“enactments”), throughout the life span, as they constitute the meaning-emotions that the person experiences and expresses. Working within a relational psychoanalytic framework, Santostefano expands this approach by weaving together contributions from developmental psychology, cognitive-emotional psychology, behavioral psychology and environmental psychology. The text flows naturally to its culminating set of concrete steps for when and how the therapist can best carry out Santostefano’s broad proposal that the ‘the therapist design, initiate and interact with the patient in enactments.’

Willis F. Overton, Temple University

This is a bold, contemporary, and, frankly a refreshing work for anyone involved in the practice and/or in the teaching of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Importantly, Santostefano manages to place psychoanalysis in the broader context of 21st Century psychology, and does so while using examples from across the lifespan (child, adolescent, and adult) to bring his theoretical points into the consultation room. This book is one that will be useful to both seasoned professionals, as well as beginning psychotherapists.

Benjamin Harris, City University of New York at City College