I have often felt that the 350-word limit is too little for an adequate book review; and reading Professor Meares' new book has made me more certain than ever. Professor Meares' work as a psychotherapist, researcher and practitioner is well known; with his colleague Robert Hobson, he developed and empirically tested a psychotherapeutic intervention called the conversational model of therapy. In this new work, he offers a thesis of how each of us ‘grows’ a self during our childhood years; and how an understanding of this process can help us to understand how psychotherapy ‘works’ and generates positive change.

Professor Meares writes with elegance and economy; and this comparatively slim book contains rich and thought-provoking material. He invites us to think about William James' model of self-experience; especially its double aspect of ‘I’ and ‘me’. This ‘double vision’ entails a self-reflective process that is constantly iterating and thus developing; especially in conversation with others. He reviews the theoretical base, and the evidence, for the development of two types of human thought: what the physicist Pauli described as verbal and symbolic thought. Humans need to be able to use both types of thinking (which use distinct cytoarchitectural systems in the brain); and disturbances in these thinking systems result in the psychopathology that we see every day in general adult psychiatry.

It really is impossible to do justice to this work in a short review; to its breadth, depth and coherence of argument. Professor Meares draws on a range of evidence for his thesis, including neuroscience, quantum physics and poetry. This book is a valuable reminder to all practising psychiatrists that every person who seeks our help has a storied experience of self and personhood that they will want to share with us. It is the job of all psychiatrists (not just those called therapists), to be able to listen to these stories; identify the source of psychological pain; and use our own language skills to help the patient recover a more coherent sense of self and agency. Professor Meares' book tells us why language and narrative are crucial for the development of self and culture; and I strongly recommend it.