Re: "Going Home Again" — Letters that should have been in the new york times

To the Editor:

Re “Going Home Again” (column, March 21): David Brooks, in talking about Sting’s TED talk presentation, writes convincingly about what he calls “historical consciousness” and the creative aspects of “going back.”

This is the essence of an insight-oriented psychotherapy, in which the emotionally alive process of reflecting on one’s past liberates the individual in living a more fulfilling future.

It is precisely because the process of looking back can feel painful or overwhelming that it is often fended off. The psychotherapist, a benevolent guide, serves to catalyze that process.

LARRY S. SANDBERG
New York, March 21, 2014

The writer is a psychoanalyst and a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical Center.