Engaging the Ineffable

Every day we use words like “desire,” “time,” “story,” “hope,” and “mastery” thinking we know what they mean. But these concepts are beyond words—ineffable. Our understanding of each concept passes through our neuro filters shaped by our societies and life stories. When we reflect on these topics we have to ask whose understanding? Do we engage these concepts in ways that trap us in confusion or lead us to happiness and success?

Each concept, ubiquitous and elusive like Rorschach’s inkblots, shows that it is not just what we think but how we engage the ineffable. This book will catalyze reflection and exploration of these everyday intangibles that reside in both head and heart.

Engaging the Ineffable is unique in that each of the 21 topics is treated from the perspective of a psychoanalyst, neuroscientist, and Mentor Coach. These notions are ineffable, in part, because there is no single place in the brain you can point to and say, “This is the location of memory, hope, nostalgia, mastery, desire, or serendipity.” Nor are these functions even located in a single hemisphere of the brain.

Standard psychoanalytic literature tends to focus on the pathological aspects of the subjects of these essays, but not address happiness, creativity, hope, humor, inspiration, joy, and other positive transformations. The reflections In this book will lead to mindfulness and meaning, guiding us to perspectives that will lead to rewarding choices and happiness.


“His insight, wisdom and utterly positive focus on what I could do now (rather than what I lost) helped me emerge from an initial period of fear and helplessness to one of remarkable resilience and strength.” —Geneen Roth, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Women Food and God and This Messy Magnificent Life

"What a wonderful confluence of events: ‘ineffable’ is one of my favorite words, and Dave Krueger is one of my favorite writers."—John David Mann, Co-Author of the bestselling classic The Go-Giver

"Dr. Krueger offers a whole host of well-written, engaging and creative ways to explore the powerful internal self and important issue of resistance to change."—Regina Pally, M.D. Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Reflective Communities Author of The Reflective Parent, Norton, 2017

“Lively essays amounting to a livable philosophy.” —Roy A. Blount Jr., Panelist on NPR’s Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me; Ex-President of the Authors Guild; author of 24 books