Love and its Disappointment

An explanation of the meaning of life, therapy and art by an author who has already written on Carl Rogers and Zen. He takes the position that love is the primary drive in human life, that psychotherapy is an art, that art is therapeutic; hence both therapy and art are forms of love, which is essentially expressed as esteem. However, as we know, love encounters obstacles, giving rise to frustration, which is then expressed in art. Brazier proposes what he calls 'other centred therapy' in order to emphasise that the therapist is client-centred and the client is dealing with others in her own life, reaching beyond herself. The book goes on to explain the context of this new theory, the nature of esteem, the troubles of the artist, dimensions of love and issues of transference and technique. He concludes that the effectiveness of Rogers' approach is in fact due to the functioning of love and esteem. The book mainly aimed at practitioners, but contains much of interest for the general reader.