<P>During early development, every human being is exposed to the relative impact of relational trauma - disconfirmation of aspects of oneself as having legitimate existence in the world of others - in shaping both the capacity for spontaneous human relatedness and the relative vulnerability to "adult-onset trauma." To one degree or another, a wave of dysregulated affect - a dissociated "tsunami" - hits the immature mind, and if left relationally unprocessed leaves a fearful shadow that weakens future ability to regulate affect in an interpersonal context and reduces the capacity to trust, sometimes even experience, authentic human discourse. </P><P>In his fascinating third book, Philip Bromberg deepens his inquiry into the nature of what is therapeutic about the therapeutic relationship: its capacity to move the psychoanalytic process along a path that, bit by bit, shrinks a patient''s vulnerability to the pursuing shadow of affective destabilization while simultaneously increasin