ABSTRACT
A full reading of this book and exposure to this psychoanalyst and man, Joseph D. Lichtenberg, offers us the opportunity to understand that psychoanalysis will always stay alive if the spirit of inquiry is the goal of treatment. As Joe has said, the spirit of inquiry is a co-created spirit of investigation that is at its best a collaboration and joint endeavor. It is not a skill, but rather it is an orientation or a way of being (Interviews with Joe Lichtenberg, this volume). If the analyst is capable of creating this kind of dialogue and open space between him/her and the patient, the patient over time will identify with the analyst’s excitement in a co-created spirit of inquiry. The capacity to open up thinking so that it remains creative, playful, flexible, and not critical of either collaborator, promotes growth (Lichtenberg, 2009, 2013).
