Читать книгу Wisdom from the Couch - Jennifer Kunst - Страница 9

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

AS LONG AS I CAN remember, I have wanted to be a writer. As evidence, there is a photo of me at around age four, sitting at the dining room table on a makeshift high chair of phone books, hunched over an old Royal typewriter, looking like a cub reporter trying to make a deadline. This book, then, is the ripening of that early aspiration and the joyful satisfaction of it.

My mother tended my childhood aspirations with a loving touch, although, sadly, she didn’t live long enough to see my dream come true. I am fortunate to still have a father and a sister who remember that photo as if it were taken yesterday, who have always cheered me on as they watched me grow. So, to the family of my childhood, I offer my first thanks.

A book that speaks about the wisdom of psychoanalysis cannot be conceived in a vacuum; to have any real depth, it requires lived experience that can only be found in an intentional community of learning. My community is the Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC) in Los Angeles. At PCC, adoptive parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, and children have taught me, influenced me, fed me, challenged me, and helped me find my voice. In particular, Dr. Mark Hassan and Dr. Chris Minnick brought to life the concepts of Melanie Klein, both for me and within me. I am forever in their debt and promise to pay it forward.

I am grateful to my group of dedicated patients who have opened their hearts, minds, and lives to me, day after day, week after week, and often year after year. They have given me the gift of meaningful work, and I have learned so much from them. I also extend my thanks to the students who have ventured into my seminars over the past twenty years at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology and Patton State Hospital. The “Church Ladies,” too, were enthusiastic learners and the best posse a gal could ever have. Through their hunger for understanding, these patients and students have inspired me to find commonsense ways of describing complex ideas and creative ways to reach them, not just intellectually but at the core.

This book got its real shot with a traditional publisher because of my online platform, A Headshrinker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so I must thank the editors at Psychology Today for giving me the opportunity to write a blog for their website. I extend my thanks to my agent, Linda Roghaar, who through serendipity happened to be going through her inbox when my email query letter came through. The folks at Central Recovery Press, especially Dan Mager, had the life experience in both publishing and mental health that made our partnership such a natural fit. It has been an unexpected blessing that my publishing team could understand my work so deeply, even from the inside out.

A friend once said that your bridesmaids change through the seasons of your life. Those who stand up for you at your wedding may be different from those who stand by you through the birth of a baby, or an illness, or an important milestone such as this. So I thank the bridesmaids who stood by me through the making of this book—Usha Daniel, Gayle Marks, and Helen Nedelman. They loved me, supported me, and jumped up and down with delight at all the right places. I wish Carla Schuler had lived long enough to see this day, but I like to think she is somewhere beaming with pride while hosting a heavenly book-launching party for me with yummy canapés.

Saving the best for last, I thank my husband, Scott Miller. I love that he calls this “our” book because, in so many ways, it is. He has been my unofficial agent, editor, manager, and muse, pushing me to stay in the game and keep setbacks in perspective while bragging about me behind my back. He read every page of this manuscript, taking his time, soaking it in, wrestling and questioning and critiquing in his signature way. I smile when I imagine myself opening the book for the first time and finding a little square of paper that says, “Inspected by STM.”

My cup runneth over.