Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS

As I write this short semi-annual introduction, I contemplate where I am/ we are. Our social lives have taken off once more, with a frenetic energy that was absent pre-pandemic. Restaurants, theatres and concerts halls are packed, and flights loaded to the brim…we are all out. And yet, underneath this return to a 'normal' mask-less society, I sense a tenuous jolly mood faintly filled with something leaden, signalling that this will not endure. I feel I am not entirely here and not all that grounded. So how do I ground myself in the now, where the pandemic's shadow continues to hover and the future is (always) uncertain? With a book, of course, read in silent and delicious contemplation. So, let me jump straight into the excellent offering in this section.

The section starts with Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman, who write about four female philosophers in Oxford in the Forties and their work to bring metaphysical philosophy back to life. Birth and death, the structures that ultimately boundary our existence, form the basis for Being Born by Alison Stone. It is followed by two reviews on death, both based on lived experience: The Red of My Blood by Strover Cloud and A Matter of Death and Life by Irvin and Marilyn Yalom. Cloud's book grants us a glimpse of grief and a way to learn to live alongside loss and death, while the book by the Yaloms describes the nearing death of one and the aftermath for the other.

Groth's Medard Boss and The Promise of Therapy offers insight on Boss's work and life, Daseinanalysis, and existential approaches in therapy. Last, but not least, is a review of The Touch Taboo in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life by Tamar Swade, a book on how touch can be healing. And if these are not to your liking, pick another one from our book list and write a review so others may enjoy the fruits of your moments of contemplation. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ondine Smulders