Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis

Examining contemporary psychoanalysis as it is experienced by both analysts and their patients, Mitchell, a training analyst at Manhattan's William Alanson White Institute, cogently delineates the ways contemporary analysis has moved away from Freud's original vision, particularly in regard to drive theory. Mitchell views psychoanalysis as a fluid process in which the developing relationship between analyst and analysand--specifically in the gradual expression and shaping of their own desires and fears--becomes the field on which deep change is facilitated. Setting his observations in a theoretical context, he cites the work of such modern psychoanalytic thinkers as David Winnicut, Heinz Kohut, Melanie Klein and Daniel Stern, among others. He argues that ``analytic method is not archaeological and reconstructive; it does not simply expose what is there. Rather it is constructive and synthetic; it organizes whatever is there into patterns it itself supplies.'' Exploring current theories of self along with such clinical issues as the beginnings and endings of analytic treatment, Mitchell writes with clarity and passion. Psychotherapy Book Club and Behavioural Science Book Service alternates. (Oct.)