This is an unassuming and graceful account of one psychotherapist's twenty year journey of discovery towards an understanding of psychotherapy. Kenneth Bragan shares with the reader how, on the course of this journey, he found much of relevance in the teachings of Kohut to clinical work with individuals seeking self-restoration in an increasingly complex and fragmented society. Bragan describes how he found support for these ideas in the work of Jung on individuation, as well as in the work of a wide range of other writers, including poets, philosophers and novelists, who by demonstrating and expressing a spiritual and cultural awareness of the self, anticipated the findings of Self Psychology. Ultimately, he is concerned with that extra dimension that can come into the relationship between therapist and patient, when "each participant senses and sees the reality of the other and speaks from the truth of the self."

Drawing on a wide range of reading and personal experience, this account will be a valuable introduction to ideas about the self for those just beginning on their own journey as a psychotherapist or counsellor. It will also be of interest to anyone concerned with the effectiveness of the therapy they offer to their patients.