Jeremy Safran: a hero’s journey

In this essay I explore Jeremy Safran’s intellectual career as a hero’s journey or monomyth within the specific context of psychotherapy research. I argue that he fits such model in the sense that his work – though deeply informed by theories – was singularly focused and driven by his own sense of his role and mission within the profession. Rather than attempting to review in detail the entire scope or specific parts of his research contributions, I look at his scholarship as a kind of quest, a pursuit that was trans-theoretical but unified by foundational questions about the unique nature of the relationship between therapist and patient.