Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling.

Shared Wisdom: Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling. By Pamela Cooper-White. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004. x and 246 pages. Paper. $18.00.

Reflecting on this very thoughtful and instructive work of pastoral theology, I was reminded of the climax to David Mamet's classically comic (i.e., optimistic) movie, State and Main. In that scene, the protagonist, who believes that he has just committed perjury, is given a second chance not to do so. That is, what he thought was the real thing--his having given false testimony in a court of law--turns out to have been a staged thing from which he, like all dramatic audiences, now may learn to do "the right thing." In the Preface to her work, Cooper-White writes, "The purpose of this book is to show that by delving into our own subjective experience of the counseling relationship, our 'counter transference,' we will come to a deeper, more empathic appreciation of the other ..." (p. vii). That is, by reminding ourselves of what is stirred up within ourselves when we care for another--the unreflective enacting of which may often be a "wrong thing"--we may learn how to do a better thing for and with that other.

Cooper-White begins with four vignettes of pastoral care and counseling in which pastors reflexively respond in ways that reflect more their own struggles than the need or wishes of those for whom they care. Throughout the remainder of her work she refers to these examples as illustrative of how attending to such caregiver countertransference may assist in care. She carefully describes how the understandings of this subjective process within caregivers have developed throughout the history of psychoanalytic theory and practice. In particular she illustrates how attention to this process may in fact offer us clues about what is going on within others through our relationship with those others. Next, she details how this "relational paradigm" of what it means to be human may be used in three areas of ministry: pastoral assessment and theological reflection, pastoral care, and pastoral psychotherapy. Through a revisioning of her earlier vignettes now as instances in which caregivers do attend to their subjective experience, she demonstrates how they--and we--may arrive at wisdom that is shared with those who are cared for. That is to say, through such analysis (often best conducted under supervision and always after some training) we may give ourselves something like a second chance--or, more accurately, accept from God the opportunity--to do a better thing.

Cooper-White has written a detailed yet highly readable book for pastors that will assist them in all dimensions of their practice. She concludes her work with a proclamation that "Through prayer, worship, and a commitment to emancipatory practice, both alone and with others, our hearts will be changed by the living God who calls us into relation with the divine and with one another" (p. 193). The reader will benefit from the optimism

and wisdom she shares and will hunger for more.

Leonard M. Hummel 

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg