Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind
“I intended to dip into Joan Peters' memoir for half an hour but couldn't stop. Page after page my admiration for Peters' bravery and generous spirit grew. Pitch-perfect and unpretentious, Untangling is a powerful testimonial for confronting rather than running from the past, however painful.”
Judith Thurman, author of Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
“Joan Peters’ uniquely brave and luminous Untangling explains why and how analysis works — or doesn't. It took Peters a lifetime to untangle her primal knots, but she succeeded. This is a personal saga with universal wisdom to impart.”
Seth Aronson, Fellow, Training and Supervising Analyst, William Alanson White Institute, New York
“Joan Peters, in her moving page turner of a memoir, shows how analysis embodies pentimento, 'uncovering the painting beneath the painting'. In doing so, Peters illustrates how analysis enhances and transforms one's life.”
Ilene Philipson, author of On the Shoulders of Women: The Feminization of Psychotherapy
“A Triumph! Peters’ memoir reads like a spellbinding novel – a testimony to what psychoanalysis can be. Her analyst’s afterword is thoughtful, intelligent, and daring.”
Daniel Goldin, Editor, Psychoanalytic Inquiry
“Untangling describes the untangling of Joan's twisty past, but the book offers a second untangling as well: the untangling of the psychoanalytic process itself, told without jargon, in the ordinary but poetic language of an accomplished memoirist.”
Galit Atlas, author of Emotional Inheritance, faculty NYU Postdoctoral Program for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
I loved Untangling. It is an incredible experience to read a patient’s narrative about their therapy. Joan Peters courageously pulls back the curtain on the profound, often mysterious relationship between analyst and patient. This beautifully written memoir invites readers into the intimate space of psychoanalysis, where vulnerability and longing take center stage.
Connie Lillas, Executive Director, Interdisciplinary Training Institute,
Co-author of The NeuroRelational Framework.