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Marion Milner is known to the psychoanalytic audience as the author of the book On Not Being Able to Paint (reviewed in the American Imago in 1968, Vol. 25, No. 2). In that book, the author explored the meaning and the value of the psychoanalytic interpretation of “automatic” or, at any rate, not consciously planned doodle drawings. The conclusions were relevant for the exploration of unconscious sources of artistic creativity.
In her new book, Marion Milner makes use of her former insights and expands them in a most imaginative and productive way. She describes at great length and with all the relevant details, reflections and interpretations of a twenty years' analysis of a severely disturbed, obviously schizophrenic young woman.
During her analysis, Susan made about 200 drawings—at home as well as during her sessions—which proved of great help in the understanding of her psychosis and of the psychoanalytic process. Her own associations and the interpretations offered by the analyst provide extremely rich and fascinating material.
Some interpretations may seem rather arbitrary, especially when the author adheres, at least in my opinion, too literally and with utmost devotion to the concepts of Melanie Klein. Yet, she also uses valid Freudian concepts and seriously reflects on other psychoanalytic writers, in particular, Winnicott, Balint, Erikson, Stokes, Bion, Wilhelm Reich, Hartmann, Kris, and Guntrip.
The material presented is valuable for clinical analysis, as well as for creativity derived from the unconscious and launched by the psychoanalytic process. The graphic symbolism used