Psychotherapy without the self is mandatory reading for anyone seeking to understand todays axial event in psychoanalysis the encounter of the freudian and subsequent schools with the buddhist psychological tradition epsteins insights are utterly penetrating brilliant in uncanny comparisons and clear critical contrasts altogether illuminating it is elegantly and wittily written a real pleasure to read and dont worry there. Psychotherapy without the self is mandatory reading for anyone seeking to understand todays axial event in psychoanalysis the encounter of the freudian and subsequent schools with the buddhist psychological tradition epsteins insights are utterly penetrating brilliant in uncanny comparisons and clear critical contrasts altogether illuminating it is elegantly and wittily written a real pleasure to read and dont worry there. Psychotherapy without the self a buddhist perspective immersed in buddhist psychology prior to studying western psychiatry dr mark epstein first viewed western therapeutic approaches through the lens of the east this posed something of a challenge. Although both systems promise liberation through self awareness the central tenet of buddhas wisdom is the notion of no self while the central focus of western psychotherapy is the self