Book Review: The Sensitive Self - Michael Eigen

We are all sensitive beings, both physically and emotionally. What do we do with our sensitivity? How much of our sensitivity can we take? How do we become partners with our sensitivity in ways that make life worthwhile? In The Sensitive Self, renowned psychologist Michael Eigen explores the varied nuances of sensitivity as it threads its way through all facets of our lives.

Individual case studies, often achingly honest, are woven together by Eigen's deeply felt meditations, bringing us into the heart of psychotherapy. We see how our sensitivity to self and others plays a crucial role in sustaining our sense of aliveness. Ultimately, Eigen argues, sensitivity is the basis for a humane ethics. Powerful and illuminating, The Sensitive Self follows up on the themes of Eigen's previous books, Rage and Ecstasy, with which Eigen has established himself as one of today's most creative thinkers in psychology.

MICHAEL EIGEN is a psychologist and psychoanalyst. The author of numerous books, he is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University and a Senior Member of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. 

Without a High Sensitivity Personality What Would Life Be Like?

“Without sensitivity what would life be like?” author Michael Eigen asks in an article.

“Sensitivity nurtures us, gives life color, expressiveness, charm – provides a basis for terror. Sensitivity, feeling and thinking feed each other, are part of each other.

“Thinking and feeling are ways sensitivity unfolds or grows… without the sensory sea we take for granted, feeling and thought would dry up and die.”

It’s a nice reminder that our sensitivity is something we can celebrate, rather than avoid or condemn.

> quotes from article: Sensitivity – by Michael Eigen, PhD, author of book The Sensitive Self