Compassion

The practice of psychotherapy is not simply a matter of technique, but depends on one's entire way of looking at the world, especially at that which is dark and difficult in human experience. Compassion, the intelligent pursuit of kindness, lies at the very heart of the psychotherapeutic enterprise. Using examples drawn from life inside and outside the consulting room, Roger A. Lewin explores the meanings, encounters, and quandaries that arise with the quest to be compassionate. The author considers compassion as a virtue at once personal and political, which both depends on and helps create a social and cultural climate. He considers compassion as it relates to the capacity to listen, to hurting and being hurt, to dependency, to joy, to grieving, to homelessness, to drug use, to institutional life, to evil, and to the self. He uses the understanding of compassion as a way to link what goes on inside the consulting room with what goes on outside it. To reflect on compassion is to seek a tuning fork for the heart, so that we can keep our passion in that part of our living and loving we call work. This helps therapists to be engaged and receptive. While such reflection may sometimes make us uncomfortable, the comfort that comes from remaining numb is ultimately more unbearable.