A Michael Eigen Companion

A Michael Eigen Companion

A Michael Eigen Companion offers 150 essential quotes, carefully selected from Michael Eigen's books, alongside explorative commentary. An expert on the work of Eigen, Bagai’s curated quotes are accompanied by commentary on particular topics to highlight their spiritual and psychoanalytic aspects. The excerpts offer moments of psychological and spiritual wisdom― gateways for quiet reflection and contemplation. Eigen's ecumenical theoretical approach fosters a humane and relational clinical attitude founded upon respectful care for wounded souls and their capacity for emotional growth and aliveness, even within the depths of psychic injury and despair. Bringing together quotes from Eigen’s published work, interviews and talks, this book provides a distilled guide to his voluminous oeuvre. At the confluence of psychoanalysis, spirituality, and psychology, A Michael Eigen Companion will be indispensable for readers from a wide range of psychoanalytic and spiritual backgrounds. It will also appeal to students of literature and philosophy, Jungians and Buddhists, as well as seekers of psychological and emotional wisdom. “I am grateful Robin Bagai is sharing aspects of my work touching moments of feeling and reverie that enrich and nourish. His selections increase appreciation of our multi-dimensional existence and deepen a sense of being. Say hello to new and old experiential possibilities and the wonder and care they inspire.” ― Michael Eigen, Ph.D., author of The Challenge of Being human and Contact with the Depths “Robin Bagai offers a luminous tribute to Michael Eigen. He has carefully and lovingly curated a treasure trove of quotes that throb with feeling, depth, aliveness and Eigen's timeless wisdom. A book to savor, return to, and be transformed by.” ― Shalini Masih, United Kingdom, Psychotherapist and Author, Psychoanalytic Conversations with States of Spirit Possession: Beauty in Brokenness “Robin Bagai has accomplished an impossible feat, hand-selecting some of Eigen’s most memorable quotes, a creative task in itself. The book reads like mantras, each to be meditated upon, opening up new spheres of experience.” ― Joon ho Lee, Korean translator for Michael Eigen’s Seminars in Seoul 1,2,3, and Director of the Korean Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis “I suppose that all endorsements I could be able to dedicate to "my good old Mike", a real friend in real psycho-analysis, would be too little to make justice to his larger-than-life dedication to approach truth, in his unique way. I suppose that Eigen's mode is a kind of psycho-analytic heredity, whose DNA is a mixture of Freud's unprejudiced truthfulness, Bion's unconditioned ability to face the unknown, and Winnicott's kindness, which enabled Eigen to get into the realm of the human unconscious. But Eigen is unique: not for a mere coincidence, he is one of the few people who lives up to his own family name. One may coin the neologism, "Eigen-ness", to describe Mike Eigen's inimitable "Eigentlich", in a resort to the German language that has the meaning of reality or truth. If I would ever be condemned to be exiled to a solitary island, and could take with me just one scientific definition from the many treasures one may find in Eigen's encyclopedic work, I would choose his differentiation of belief from faith, given in a lecture at Seoul.” ― Paulo Cesar Sandler, MD, MSci, Brazil “In this Eigen Companion, Robin Bagai enlivens what companioning could mean in many of Michael Eigen's works: honoring the spirit, listening to the heart, bearing witness by walking alongside, cultivating stillness, discovering the gift of sacred silence, and partnering disorder, if not fertile confusion. Eigen's mystical clinical-theoretical touch is artfully illuminated through Bagai’s psychoanalytic vision.” ― Loray Daws, Ph.D., D.Psa, Psychoanalyst and Clinical Psychologist “Robin Bagai provides us a gift with this stimulating compendium of Michael Eigen's psychoanalytic insights. Moments that touch spirit and soul from quotes that both edify and enlighten.” ― Ofra Eshel, faculty, training and supervising analyst, Israel Psychoanalytic Society; author, The Emergence of Analytic Oneness: Into the Heart of Psychoanalysis “What a delight it is to meander through the fertile garden of Mike Eigen's enduring and generous testimony to the richness of analytic and lived experience as opened up by the many vivid selections in this book.” ― Jeffrey Eaton, psychoanalyst and author of A Fruitful Harvest: Essays after Bion “Robin Bagai's book is an invitation to know Michael Eigen's work more intimately. It sheds light on Eigen's insights into the conditions, conflicts and inexplicable mystery of being human. And much like Eigen himself, Bagai's book is a wonderful friend and a fantastic teacher.” ― Selma Duckler, Honorary Member of The American Psychoanalytic Association “Through 'Wisdom Moments' Robin Bagai takes the reader on a mystic path along the shadow lines of the h