This extraordinary volume offers a profound and moving analysis of the spiritual potential of psychotherapy—a fundamental contribution to therapists of all traditions. A comprehensive review of all major therapeutic approaches, Life Witness provides an up-to-date summary of the major controversial issues that are the focus of contemporary research. T. Byram Karasu presents a highly critical, convincing analysis of the problematic relationship between DSM diagnoses and treatment indications. Reflecting the experience of a psychotherapist profoundly steeped in psychoanalytic tradition, Life Witness demonstrates psychotherapy at its best.

Otto F. Kernberg, MD, professor emeritus of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College; training and supervising analyst and past president, International Psychoanalytic Association

With four decades of clinical experience under his belt, with painstaking and meticulous study of diverse psychotherapeutic techniques, and with impressive credentials as an author and editor, Dr. Karasu takes us on an enlightening journey of the growth and maturation of a psychotherapist. He underscores the tension between the specificity and universality of our healing methods and deftly blends contradictory perspectives into a harmonious gestalt. Truly knowledgeable in diverse ‘schools’ of psychotherapy, comfortable in putting Eastern and Western notions together, and familiar with philosophy and spirituality, Dr. Karasu exhorts us to strive to learn and unlearn theories, open our eyes and ears to the clinical material in front of us, cultivate authenticity, and transcend dogma. This is powerful stuff indeed!

Salman Akhtar, MD, professor of psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College; training and supervising analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

Life Witness is a profound overview—thorough, penetrating, and witty—of the practice of psychotherapy. I continue to be amazed and enlightened by Byram Karasu's blend of intelligence and compassion. He is a therapist's therapist, and this new book should be on the desk—ready at hand—for every thoughtful psychotherapist.

Thomas Moore, PhD, author of Care of the Soul

T. Byram Karasu has written a remarkable book about the evolution of psychotherapeutic expertise or know-how. Crucial to this evolution, according to Karasu, is the therapist’s transcending of the particular theoretical doctrine in which he or she was trained en route to a pluralistic, ‘transtheoretical’ perspective that helps orient him or her to a patient’s emotional experience. Using Aristotle’s classical distinction, I would characterize such an evolution as a movement from techne (technical rationality) toward phronesis (practical wisdom), which is always oriented to the particular person and his or her particular situation. Karasu gives us a rich description of this evolution and an apt vision of psychotherapy as a form of applied philosophy.

Robert D. Stolorow Ph.D., author of World, Affectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis