Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Deeply admired for her direct, honest, moving, and illuminating work, Nina Coltart is a highly regarded member of the British psychoanalytic community. In her talks and essays, she explores the parameters of the psychoanalytic relationship against a background of broader issues in morality and culture. Offering her insights to a North American audience for the first time, this volume is an outgrowth of her vast experience as a psychoanalyst, teacher, and consultant.
Filled with clinical vignettes that bring her writings to life, the book cogently addresses such disparate topics as diagnosis, the superego, and silence, as well as the importance of spirituality. The title essay, which opens the book, is justly famous – a close analysis of an apparently hopeless, elderly patient, Coltart’s dramatic intervention, and the remarkable results of the case. In this and all of her work, Coltart displays an astounding ability to grasp and convey important facets of every analyst’s the complexity and paradox of analysis, the importance of intuition and not-knowing along with theoretical clarity, the necessity for flexibility and patience, and the essential capacity to allow one’s self to be used by the patient. As such, Slouching Towards Bethlehem is inspiring reading for student and veteran analysts alike.