Innovations in Psychoanalysis: Originality, Development, Progress, edited by Aner Govrin and Jon Mills, Abingdon and New York,  Routledge, 2020,  256 pp.

“Psychoanalysis is internally divided […]. We can neither find agreement nor consensus” (p. 1). This is the troubling diagnosis that Aner Govrin and Jon Mills have placed at the beginning of their book Innovations in Psychoanalysis: Originality, Development, Progress. It is true that the history of psychoanalysis is not free of various attempts to restore the lost unity, to find common ground, to bridge the gaps, thus also gaining “scientific credibility” (p. 1), but unfortunately there is also a long and sad history of excluding dissenters and of classifying criticism as threat. Govrin and Mills do not dwell long on the negative aspects, though: Psychoanalysis is worth preserving and fortunately there are still “independent thinkers within contemporary times” determined to work on “a renewal of intellectual energies” (p. 1).

Govrin and Mills's edited volume is about the power of innovation. It brings together contributions and experiences of a number of well-known psychoanalysts. The editors are well aware of the difficulties of their enterprise:

Any attempt to outline the innovations in this domain will have to thread a narrow, dialectical line between two opposing directions. On the one hand there will be the exposure of a dynamic of change in therapeutic approaches, the rise and fall of theoretical models, and the development of new therapeutic techniques. On the other, there is the fact that there has not been all that much change in the influence of mainstream psychoanalytic theory […]. Innovation has mainly come via interpretive extensions. (pp. 1-2)

The most important and most illuminating remark of the editors in their preface, however, is the following one: “If the field of psychoanalysis is to evolve, it must expand its scope of reference and be willing to engage in critique” (p. 4). Only “critique among differing schools and internal debate within one's own theoretical orientation” (p. 4) will “allow […] for innovations to arise and flourish” (p. 4).

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