The strength of the volume is that it is based in clinical practice, while remaining richly scholarly/theoretical in terms of conceptual apparatus and textual engagement. To those who ask if its ideas are practical, I would reply that clinical practice in the highly poetic field of psychoanalysis can only be enriched by the encounter with original and unabashed thinking, which sparks new energies and avenues in the reader, none of which reactions are predictable in advance, or even likely to be common among a given cohort. In this regard, the volume strikes me as eminently practical, but not in the manner of a recipe. - Paul Magee, Professor of Poetry, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra
