Service, where I have worked for the past four years. Their knowledge,
insight, and collective wisdom have allowed me to become a better
psychologist—as both a therapist and a diagnostician. Working in this
supportive and rigorous setting allowed me to continue to learn and to
expand my horizons on a daily basis.
I thank the Shinui Institute for Family and Marriage Therapy for
introducing me to the systems perspective in psychotherapy,
encouraging me to view and treat symptoms within the broadest
possible context, taking into account the strong impact of our closest
relationships on our lives. I also thank Batya Krieger, my first therapy
supervisor, for her encouragement and guidance.
I extend special thanks to the people who influenced my thinking
early in my career, including Dr. Harvey Hornstein, not only an
outstanding professional and teacher but also an exceptionally
generous person, and Dr. W. Warner Burke, for his wisdom and
inspiration—both at Columbia University.
I express my gratitude to my parents: my father, Jonathan Frankel,
who, to my dismay, didn’t live to see this project come to fruition, and
my mother, Edith Rogovin Frankel, who has helped in a multitude of
ways. I am also grateful to my husband, Jonathan, for his love, support,
friendship, and wisdom, and to my three children, who add depth and
meaning to my life every single day.
From Amir
I’ve been fortunate to find an intellectual home for the past twelve
years in the departments of psychiatry and neuroscience at Columbia
University, where I’ve had the opportunity to work with superb clinicians
and researchers. I am grateful to the many teachers, supervisors,
mentors, and colleagues who’ve enriched my life and thinking. I
specifically thank those who’ve had ongoing influence on my
professional path: Dr. Rivka Eiferman at Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, who taught me about the analytic attitude and how to
reserve judgment when listening to patients; the late Dr. Jacob Arlow,
whose work helped form the core of modern analytic thinking and from
whom I was lucky enough to have learned psychotherapeutic practice;
Dr. Lisa Mellman and Dr. Ron Rieder, who were instrumental in