The analyst-patient relationship is one of the central and most sensitive issues of theory and practice of psychoanalysis. And it is this difficult knot, made ​​of fine balance between detachment and involvement, including clarity and emotion, including analysis and empathy, which Stefano Bolognini studies with decision in this new essay, describing it vividly in any aspect. The many clinical cases, reported with poignancy and affection, convert the exposure in a compelling story. An intelligent criticism and a strong unconventionality thus join with a solid theoretical framework to describe what still remain a relationship between two humans, a common journey to unfamiliar lands, where there is the meeting between the more disruptive conditions of mental life and, furthermore, life in general.

Stefano Bolognini, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is a full member with training functions of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society. Since 2003 he's European delegate on the board of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) and since 2002 member of the European editorial board of the '"International Journal of Psychoanalysis."