A very sophisticated tour de force, Stanley Keleman’s Emotional Anatomy offers a unique and comprehensive view of the nature and operation of the embodied human experience. Keleman’s descriptions evoke experiences that are familiar to many, yet the language employed invites deep reflection. As a fledgling therapist (with a background in Chinese Medicine), I have been fascinated by this work since I first encountered it because it speaks to one of the most elusive and profound truths of so-called “alternative medicine,” which is the unity and continuity of mind and body. In his book, Keleman does not resort to ready-made phraseology or platitudes. Rather, he firmly places his work in the context of western psychological discourse and unravels, layer by layer, the more subtle, yet inescapably true aspects of human life, from conception to adulthood. His focus is on differentiating and articulating function and personal experience out of our shared human experience.

I had the opportunity to attend a workshop with the author last year, and was blown away by how the concepts presented in this book are articulated in practice. Some forms of Body Psychotherapy favor cathartic release and look for ways of integrating the healing of traumatic experiences through subsequent talk-therapy and other forms of evaluation. Keleman’s work, however, is unique; it emphasizes the subtle dimensions of embodied experience, and how “acting out” traumatic situations can be obviated if the patient is brought into a space where experience is prioritized over the explanations and the stories that we all are fond of extrapolating out of embodied experiences that are initially and fundamentally wordless. Likewise, the pictorial and verbal language of this book, while dense to read, comes alive if one’s experience is allowed to inform the reading.

This is a book for reading, studying, putting down, and re-reading years later. Its insights and turns of phrase do not get old, but rather acquire more relevance and depth as one’s perception deepens and experience in the clinic increases. I have described this book before as “an instruction manual for human beings,” and my second reading confirms this. I highly recommend this one.

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