ABSTRACT

IN HER FINELY TEXTURED AND NUANCED ACCOUNT OF SESSIONS WITH her patient Ali, Holly Levenkron is unusually successful in finding words for her own subtle feelings and perceptions, and she conveys her grasp of Ali 's with equal specificity and delicacy. When Levenkron de­ scribes an interaction, we can actually feel what is happening from moment to moment. I admire this article for these novelistic qualities alone. But there is more here than compelling prose. Levenkron uses her experi­ ence-near account of her clinical experience to present a perspective on clinical work-an interesting and useful perspective, even an inspiring one. And she doesn't just present the perspective. She lays out her experience with Ali in such a way that we can see exactly how she came to her views.