New perspectives on development and their implications for psychoanalytic treatment.

Reviews the book, Psychoanalysis and infant research by Joseph D. Lichtenberg (1983). The burgeoning field of infant research has burst through the seams of our traditional view of infants. We now know that neonates are far more aware of their environment, more capable of eliciting responses from people, and more differentiated in their responses to caretakers and to a variety of external stimuli than we had ever believed. In part, this new knowledge has been gained through clever, creative experimentation by academic researchers. Experiments have been devised which are simple enough for neonatal responsiveness, yet offer relevant information about the infant's learning, cognitive, and emotional capacities. Joseph Lichtenberg's book, Psychoanalysis and infant research, presents this rich body of research. Were he content to offer us this new and absorbing view of the neonate, that alone would make the book interesting and worthwhile. Lichtenberg, however, is more ambitious. He sees important implications of infant research for various aspects of psychoanalytic theory and believes that a careful reading of the infancy data will "lead to reexamination of our theory" (p. 27). While the reviewer thinks there is much that infant research can offer to inform psychoanalytic theory, more empirical data are clearly needed from this area as well as from clinical research in the psychoanalytic setting. Lichtenberg deserves our gratitude both for calling our attention to some of the most important research findings that have emerged to date and for directing us to consider the implications of these findings for psychoanalytic theory and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Freud and Psychology.

Reviews the book, Freud and Psychology edited by S. G. M. Lee and Martin Herbert (see record 1971-29146-000). This volume presents twenty papers, an introduction and bibliographies on psychoanalysis. The papers are divided into seven sections which are headed "Psychoanalysis as Science: General Theoretical Considerations", "Psychoanalysis as Science: Methodological Considerations", "Freud's Genetic Theories: Infant Experience and Adult Behaviour", Psychosexual Development and Character Formation", "Defence Mechanisms", "Unconscious Motivation and Dreaming", and "Conclusions." The authors are psychologists and psychoanalysts of many persuasions who originally published these works between 1938 and 1966. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A memorial essay on Merton Max Gill (1914-1994).

Reviews the book, Psychoanalysis in transition: A personal view by Merton M. Gill (see record 1994-98473-000). Merton Gill's final book, subtitled A personal view, may aptly be understood from a retrospective perspective as a fitting presentation of his intellectual memoirs. From that vantage point, Gill's final book conveys a wish that his personal legacy be understood by the public in terms of his evolving contributions to change and new perspectives in the history of psychoanalytic theory and technique, rather than through other details of his personal life. First, in terms of Gill's intended audience, it is clear that he succeeded in his intention to create a work that would be enlightening to both students and beginning clinicians, as well as to the more experienced practitioner. It is also plausible that Gill was writing this book for a third audience, not made explicit, but of great importance to him. This third audience could be understood to be comprised mostly of those who have known him personally, those who have collaborated with him, and the many others who are already familiar with his work and its course of evolution. Psychoanalysis in transition (1994) can be understood as a further examination of Gill's stated basic aim of his earlier monographs on transference in at least two ways: (a) It continues his dialectical effort to examine and synthesize dichotomies in psychoanalytic theory and practice and (b) it extends his views about the need to be alert to here-and-now interactions in the analytic situation and presents an elaboration of Gill's subsequent new metatheory and metapsychology, which he sees as supplanting Freud's "natural science physicoenergic framework." In conclusion, Transitions in psychoanalysis stands as an evocative and insightful final statement of Merton Gill's perceptions of the broad landscape of ongoing, major psychoanalytic controversies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Dispatches from the Freud wars: Psychoanalysis and its passions and Truth games: Lies, money and psychoanalysis.

Reviews the books, Dispatches from the Freud wars: Psychoanalysis and its passions by John Forrester (see record 1997-08548-000) and Truth games: Lies, money and psychoanalysis by John Forrester (see record 1997-36555-000). Although psychoanalysis has been attacked since its inception, the nature of the assaults has varied. Right now, it is being assailed in terms of the new trinity of race, class, and gender, to say nothing of its problematic position as a science, in a world that increasingly values technology. Even as a narrative system, it is accused of lacking credibility and causing damage more than cures. In Dispatches From the Freud Wars: Psychoanalysis and Its Passions, John Forrester, the philosopher and historian of science, provides a welcome cease-fire. Although his title refers to the current Freud wars, Forrester does not engage in any violent skirmish himself. Rather, he stands on the edge of battle, sending back reports from the defense as well as the enemy camp. His position is civilized rather than combative: balanced, measured, and a triumph of reason over id, perhaps too much so. Although the passions of Forrester's subtitle refer to the passions within psychoanalytic theory itself, the passions that it treats, and the passions that it arouses in its defendants as well as its opponents, Forrester himself is calm. Yet it is clear whose side he is on. Not that his book is only about the wars—in this sense, the title is misleading—for it treats such varied subjects as envy and justice, Ferenzi's love relationships, and Freud as a collector of artifacts as well as dreams. Readers coming to Forrester's most recent book, Truth Games: Lies, Money and Psychoanalysis, hoping to learn about the lies psychoanalysis reputedly tells (or the money it wrongly accrues) are going to be disappointed. This book grounds itself on the integrity of psychoanalysis. It never raises the question so prominent today of whether psychoanalytic theory is itself based on deception and fraud. While accepting that human beings lie and that patients' lies are somehow connected to psychoanalytic truth (insofar as they are revealing), it ignores the possibility of the lying analyst. In relation to truth, lies, and memory, Forrester writes that recognition of the importance of the transference led Freud to conclude that "success was achieved whether patient and analyst worked with memories or with impulses in the here and now" (Forrester, 1997, p. 77). He found "in free association and the analyst's withholding of belief and unbelief a means of isolating his practice from the problem of lying and deception" (p. 79). Following Lacan, Forrester notes that although psychoanalysis is predicated on the patient's telling the truth, its very techniques, such as free association, encourage the opposite. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychoanalysis at the margins.

Reviews the book, Psychoanalysis at the margins by Paul E. Stepansky (see record 2009-22624-000). For more than two decades, there have been conferences and publications about psychoanalysis’ being in a crisis. None of these calls has led to a radical reorganization or reorientation of psychoanalysis. The result has been that psychoanalysis has become marginal: if in the 1960s a large percentage of professorships in psychiatry were held by psychoanalysts, now there are practically none. There are hardly any graduate programs in clinical psychology that are psychoanalytically oriented, and there are very few professorships in psychology that are in the hands of psychoanalysts. And while there are still many psychoanalytic institutes that succeed in attracting candidates, there are almost no patients left that come for classical psychoanalysis. Stepansky’s book is a major achievement and should be read by anybody concerned with the future of psychoanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis at the millennium: A unitary theory.

A unitary theory of psychoanalysis in the place of the present pluralistic theoretical culture is presented. Although alternative theoretical systems to the basic theory discovered and expanded by Freud have been present since the beginnings of psychoanalysis, their modern forms took root in the late 1960s and received quasi-official sanction and status with the posing of the question "One Psychoanalysis or Many?" in the Presidential Address of the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1988 (R. Wallerstein, 1988), to which the answer automatically given was "many." Proposed to this question is the answer of "one," a unified, composite theory of psychoanalysis that is to be distinguished from nonpsychoanalytic theories of human behavior. The reasoning and contents behind such an approach are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discussion of Dr. Patrick Zimmerman's article on Merton Gill's contributions to the evolution of psychoanalysis: A memorial commentary on Transitions in psychoanalysis.

Agrees with much of what P. Zimmerman has stated in his review (see record 2007-10643-001) of Merton Gill's book, Psychoanalysis in Transition: A Personal View (see record 1994-98473-000). The present author notes that Gill clarified and elaborated important dichotomies in psychoanalysis in multidimensional ways, and discusses Gill's constructivist or perspectivist position, wherein Zimmerman stated, "Gill's elaboration of this new constructivist or perspectivist metapsychology seems to be the major real determinant for the particular organization of [his] final book." While Gill used these terms interchangeably, the present author differentiates between them. The third point discussed relates to the fundamental question of what is curative in psychoanalysis. Zimmerman discussed Mitchell's critique of Gill's position that despite Gill's openmindedness to the importance of the analytic relationship, Gill maintained the traditional view that insight is central to cure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond symbolizing: A response to Bornstein’s review.

Responds to the review by R. F. Bornstein (see record 2010-02522-001) on the current author's book, "Psychoanalysis and cognitive science: A multiple code theory" (see record 1997-08863-000). Although there is not much that Bornstein says with which Bucci can disagree, she responds specifically to a few of Bornstein's points and adds a few that he does not include. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of My Life in Theory.

Reviews the book, My Life in Theory by Leo Rangell (see record 2004-12815-000). Leo Rangell has been a central figure in the theoretical, clinical, and organizational aspects of psychoanalysis for over 6 decades. He is the only native-born American to become Honorary President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, where he twice was elected President. He also served 2 terms as President of the American Psychoanalytic Association. One might therefore view him and this intellectual autobiography as the voice of the ultimate "insider." To do so would, however, miss the independence and humanness of the author. Actually, this "autobiography" consists of several parallel strains. It is indeed a history of Rangell's lifetime journey and love affair with psychoanalysis; it is a critique of the direction that psychoanalysis has taken, and subsequently a call for a total composite theory, and finally, it is an attempt to set the record straight. Rangell states: "My goal has always been, and it is in this book, to present a view of a unitary psychoanalytic theory as this has cumulatively grown and progressed over the century" (p.50). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy by P. L. Wachtel (see record 2008-01938-000). Having produced important texts involving the integration of a psychoanalytic perspective with cognitive–behavioral and family systems perspectives, in the current book he turns his attention to seemingly divergent lines of thought within psychoanalysis itself. Psychoanalysis—that variegated, continually branching and diversifying body of theory and practice that started with Sigmund Freud but which has moved so far beyond its origins so as to be almost unrecognizable in some respects—is certainly Wachtel’s primary home. In this book, Wachtel sets out to try and get the house in greater order, both for psychoanalytic inhabitants themselves and for visitors from other theoretical homes. The collection of psychoanalytic perspectives that have gradually taken context into account as being equally important to those factors that are internal are referred to as relational. And it is to these perspectives, which sometimes diverge in significant ways from each other and also from “one-person,” internally focused perspectives, that Wachtel devotes his attention in this book. With Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy, Paul Wachtel has written an important book, one that will be particularly stimulating and useful to graduate-level-and-above students of psychotherapy. It will also be accessible, thought provoking and clarifying to open-minded psychotherapy practitioners of all stripes, particularly those who do not identify themselves as relational, psychoanalytic, or even psychodynamic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamics.

W. S. Taylor's ("Psychoanalysis revised or psychodynamics developed?" American Psychologist, 1962, 17, 784-788, see record 1963-05882-001) polemic may be assessed against the background provided by Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as conveniently reviewed by Gillispie (1962) in a recent issue of Science. The present author comments that Taylor fails to see that psychoanalysis is a relatively coherent system of theories rather than an accumulation of the various theories that Taylor says had been put forward by others, sometimes centuries earlier. A major part of his misapprehension is his overlooking the fact that psychoanalysis is primarily a method of research rather than the body of theories that happen, at the present time, to be based on following that method (for a recent discussion of psychoanalysis as a scientific method, see Ramzy, 1962). More important, however, he adopts an either-or attitude, "Psychoanalysis Revised or Psychodynamics Developed," that is quite unnecessary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Relational concepts in psychoanalysis.

Reviews the book, Relational concepts in psychoanalysis by Stephen A. Mitchell (see record 1988-98472-000). This book is a landmark statement for psychoanalytic theory, and especially of the place of relational theory. It stands outside and above the field, viewing developments over the century since Freud began his explorations. Mitchell compares each of the major positions of psychoanalytic theory specifically to the new model he proposes, which he calls a "relational-conflict model." This model is neither the "drive-conflict" model derived centrally from Freud, nor the "developmental-arrest" model that Mitchell associates with Winnicott and Kohut. Mitchell's model is closest to those proposed by Fairbairn and Racker, but he also relies heavily on Sullivan, Loewtild, Schafer, and other modern writers who have contributed to a view of the individual as centered in the human environment and interactive with it. Mitchell has given us a first-rate book, a scholarly and inventive synthesis with welcome conclusions. The clarity and thoughtfulness of his statement make this book worthy of study, even for those who take issue with him. I believe he takes us as far as analytic theory can go at the moment towards blending the worlds of the intrapsychic and the interpersonal. Mitchell notes that theories are, after all, only metaphors to be used and examined. His own statement seems a particularly sensible and comprehensive one. There is room to grow in psychoanalytic theory and technique. Mitchell makes it abundantly clear that psychoanalysis is not only alive, but is entering an exciting period of synthesis and new growth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and personality and Nebraska symposium on motivation.

Reviews the books "Motivation and personality," by A. H. Maslow (see record 1955-02233-000) and "Nebraska Symposium on Motivation," edited by M. R. Jones (see record 1955-02102-000). To be properly appreciated Maslow's book must be read as a protest, an eloquent and at times almost prophetic protest against the traditional homeostatic conception of drives which has held American motivational theory in a strait jacket ever since our psychological forebears first read Darwin. Maslow rightly sees that even men as apparently different as Freud and Hull were essentially the same in one respect. It is particularly interesting to juxtapose the current Nebraska Symposium on Motivation with Maslow's book. Taken as a whole, the Nebraska Symposium is impressive evidence that the study of motivation is in a vigorous and healthy state. There is not only the important controversy between the traditional drive-reduction theorists and the newer "instinctivists" but there is also a wealth of significant empirical research on different kinds of motives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Work motivation: History, theory, research, and practice.

Reviews the book, Work motivation: History, theory, research, and practice by Gary Latham (see record 2006-11764-000). The reviewer commends Latham for writing an empirically comprehensive and "personal" book on work motivation. Included is a history of work motivation studies throughout the last 100 years, directions for future research, and the author's reflections on what he has learned about the field on his own professional and personal journey through life. The reviewer praises the author's style highly, and recommends this book to all. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of sport: the behavior, motivation, personality and performance of athletes, 2nd edition.

Reviews the book, The psychology of sport: the behavior, motivation, personality and performance of athletes, 2nd edition by Dorcas Susan Butt (1987). The book discusses: a motivational model; the nature of the athlete and his/her adaptation; athletes' personality; assisting the athlete; practices and issues in consultation; and social values and sport. In summary, theory and research on sport psychology is well integrated in this book. This is accompanied by an abundance of anecdotal data and case studies that make enjoyable reading. This book is an invaluable addition to a sport consultant's collection and would be well received by students if adopted as a course text in sport psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychotherapy as a human science.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy as a human science by Daniel Burston and Roger Frie (see record 2006-12980-000). In this book, the authors show how philosophical assumptions pervade therapeutic praxis. "In our view, philosophy is inherent to the very practice of psychotherapy" (p. 2). There is a "common ground that unites the therapists of today with the philosophers of the past" (p. 17). Their effort succeeds brilliantly in reconnecting psychology and philosophy and, by that homecoming, to ground psychotherapy (including contemporary psychoanalysis) as a "human science." The book begins by sketching ideas about truth we inherit from the Greeks, then shows how Descartes and Pascal helped launch the Enlightenment with their thinking about truth and the limits of reason. Kant, Hegel, and Marx broaden the scope to include reason, the unconscious, and the course of history. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche interject angst and authenticity. Dilthey proposes a human science neither scientistic nor irrational. Husserl launches phenomenology as the proper study of experience; Scheler, Jaspers and Heidegger react in their particular ways. Freud and Jung come to loggerheads over the unconscious. Buber, Binswanger, and Boss further develop existential-phenomenological perspectives in terms of human interrelatedness. Confrontation with the other and the limits of reciprocity engage Sartre, Lacan, and Laing. Psychoanalysis grows intersubjectively through the work of Sullivan, Fromm, Merleau-Ponty, Benjamin, and Stolorow. Postmodernism's excess, Frie and Burston conclude, requires acknowledgment of an authentic self answerable for choices in life: '...[W]e are both determined by, and exercise our agency in determining, the communicative contexts in which we exist" (p. 262). Psychotherapy from this existential-phenomenological perspective becomes "a rigorous exploration of our ways of making meaning--both consciously and unconsciously" (p. 263). The book ends, then, with an affirmation of life and a call to action. All these thinkers, all these generations of lives lived, all this seeking of meaning and purpose, explanation and doubt, all this is our human lot, inherited equally. Each of us must choose, consciously or not, what to do about it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The continuing presence of psychoanalysis: A reply to Robert F. Bornstein (2001).

R. F. Bornstein (2001) implies in "The Impending Death of Psychoanalysis" that he holds the only truth about psychoanalysis. However, his reasoning seems to be based on 2 inaccurate hypotheses or prejudices: (a) that there is a division between psychoanalysis and the rest of the world and science and psychology and (b) that the rest of the world is hostile to psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is imbedded in the same values as are evidenced in any humanistic-democratic society, and hostility expressed toward psychoanalysis comes from a variety of sources including disillusionment in the unconscious fantasy or wish that psychoanalysis can prevent the eventual death of the individual. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The ability to mourn: Disillusionment and the social origins of psychoanalysis.

Reviews the book, The ability to mourn: Disillusionment and the social origins of psychoanalysis by Peter Homans (see record 1989-98118-000). Within the broadly defined goal of investigating the social origins of psychoanalysis, this book undertakes a series of strikingly original and thought-provoking explorations into the history of the psychoanalytic movement, its place in the traditions of Western culture, and its possible role in defining a more satisfactory relationship to modernity. In addition to providing a sociological study of one of the most influential movements of our time, the book also attempts to put forward a new psychoanalytic theory of culture capable of overcoming the limitations of Freud's cultural theories. The book is divided into three parts, the first two of which are devoted primarily to the origins and early development of psychoanalysis while the third takes up the contemporary cultural significance of psychoanalysis and the author's own theory of culture. The underlying thesis of the first two parts of the book is that psychoanalysis arose from a centuries-long process of mourning dating as far back as the 14th century. In his search for a theory of culture appropriate to the problems of modernity, as in his explorations of the history of the psychoanalytic movement and the origins of psychoanalysis, Homans provides an unusually creative and original perspective on issues of fundamental importance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Fathers who fail: Shame and psychopathology in the family system.

Reviews the book, Fathers who fail: Shame and psychopathology in the family system by Melvin R. Lansky (see record 1992-98607-000). This book is composed of a collection of the author's essays which attempt to understand "the psychiatrically impaired father in a truly dynamic way." Drawing on contemporary psychoanalysis, family systems theory, and the sociology of conflict, Lansky sketches a richly textured portrait of fathers who fail. The reviewer believes that Lansky's probing discussion of narcissistic equilibrium in the family system enables him to chart the likely history of the more intimidating modes of distancing involving impulsive actions of impaired fathers. After summarizing the information presented in each chapter, the reviewer then concludes that the book largely succeeds in its task because it provides a deeper, more integrated clinical understanding of fathers who fail. It is highly recommended for selective reading for therapists and researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Interpretation and interaction: Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy?

Reviews the book, Interpretation and interaction: Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy? by Jerome D. Oremland (see record 1991-98021-000). This theoretically provocative and clinically substantive monograph cogently addresses the important and complex issues concerning the relationship between psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The essentials of each are examined in terms of the relative contribution of the two variables entering into all therapeutic endeavors--interpretation and interaction. The author's thesis stems from his viewing Merton Gill's seminal work distinguishing psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as too inclusive. There are minor editorial mistakes involving spelling errors, typos, and omissions (e.g., Chapter 6 is not listed in the contents). Some readers may be put off by the author's tendency to make unequivocal and authoritative pronouncements as well as the psychoanalytically institutional context for many of the observations. Minor limitations notwithstanding, this is an important and easily read, integrative work that advances psychoanalytic psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)