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When an analyst thinks of drive, ego, self, and object, thoughts of particular theories are not far behind. In this enlightening, integrative work, Fred Pine moves away from the expectable and offers an alternate perspective of these concepts, which he dubs “the four psychologies of psychoanalysis.” He steps into another dimension in which it is the clinical phenomena that are focused upon, leading to consequent perspectives guided by the four psychologies. The outcome is that drive, ego, object, and self are reconceptualized so that no one theorist owns any of them and all psychoanalysts will more easily appreciate all of them. Thus, when Pine addresses the self it is not in terms of the self psychology of Kohut and his disciples. The self includes phenomena of differentiation, boundaries, esteem, agency, and authenticity. Mahler, Winnicott, and Schafer are drawn upon to enlarge understanding of self phenomena. The other concepts are handled similarly. The realm of the object encompasses the internalization of relationships and their distortions and repetitions, the ego refers to defenses, adaptation and reality testing, and the drives, to urges and wishes. Such an approach leaves room for the work of many theorists. Pine's particular objective is to encourage psychoanalytic practice that is patient, rather than theory, centered. Yet, through listening to the patient the various psychologies emerge. Pine emphasizes movement from the clinical to the developmental and vice versa without giving any one psychology priority. Each develops independently and comes to be synthesized within the particular patient. Each has its own motivational status that can become a central organizer. The centrality of conflict, repetition, and development are always kept in sight.
What is appealing about this book is its lack of dogma. Pine takes for granted that all individuals have issues in each of the four psychologies, and with the appropriate questions raised, the analysts can recog