Inspired by Buddhist teachings and psychoanalytic thought, this book explores gentleness as a way of being and a developmental achievement. It offers reflections on the unique position of "gentle people", as well as certain gentle layers of the psyche in general, as they meet the world. Examining the perceptual-sensory-conscious discrepancy that often exists between a gentle person and their surroundings, it follows the intricate relationship between sensitivity and fear, the need for self-holding, and the possibility of letting go.

Incorporating theoretical investigation, clinical vignettes, and personal contemplation, the book looks into those states of mind and qualities of attention that may compose a favorable environment, internal and interpersonal, where gentleness can be delicately held. There, it is suggested, gentleness may gradually shed the fragility, confusion, and destructiveness that often get entangled with it, and serve as a valuable recourse.

Offering a unique perspective on a topic rarely discussed, the book has broad appeal for both students and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, as well as Buddhist practitioners and scholars.

Psychoanalytic and Buddhist Reflections on Gentleness, Michal Barnea-Astrog, Routledge, Paperback, 156 pp, $33.95

Michal Barnea-Astrog, PhD, is a researcher of psychoanalysis and Buddhism, a senior Hakomi trainer, a lecturer, and therapist in private practice. She studied the Refined Hakomi Method in the UK and is the founder and head of the Three-Year Hakomi Training in Israel. She is the author of Carved by Experience (Karnac, 2017), Psychoanalytic and Buddhist Reflections on Gentleness (Routledge, 2019), Migration (Pardess, 2021), The Coming Years (Shta'yim, 2022), One Other Person (Nine Lives Press, in press), and has been a Vipassana meditator for most of her adult life. Coeditor (with Mitchel Becker) of Relational Conversations on Meeting and Becoming: The Birth of a True Other (Routledge, 2023).