The Talking Cure

Despite a forced breeziness that pervades this attempt to provide psychoanalysis with biological credibility, the therapeutic case histories examined by Vaughan, herself a psychoanalyst, are intriguing for their human interest. But Vaughan makes an unconvincing case. She claims that the neural networks in a patient's brain are altered by the repeated interactions between patient and therapist (and implicit is the assumption that such changes are usually beneficial). Vaughan posits a ""story synthesizer"" in the cortex that is seemingly akin to the metaphysical constructs of id, ego and superego. She rests her theory on extrapolations from research on the dreaming human brain, narratives in therapy and the neurobiology of sea slugs, but makes no mention of such pioneers of the mind-body connection as Candace Pert or Ernest Rossi (The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing). Vaughan's title is imitative (at least eight books already boast the same title) and her subtitle is misleading. The ""science"" it refers to is really theory, and its ""psychotherapy"" refers only to Vaughan's brand of psychoanalysis. Vaughan explains complex brain functions clearly for the lay person, and her book is fascinating in parts, but her neuron argument amounts to speculation. (Apr.)