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It is good to have Peter Blos's major articles concerning adolescence collected in one volume. His contribution to the psychoanalytic understanding of this developmental phase is, of course, unique; he has claimed the territory, so to speak, and these articles make clear how justified is his claim.
Collections of papers do have their problems, and this one is no exception. An attempt is made to give the book a narrative line with the articles grouped by topic, and with introductions to sections appended to fit each group into an overall structure; but as is usually the case, this attempt is not really successful. To read the book from start to finish is to experience much repetitiousness, especially when Blos summarizes his contributions in article after article. One leaps about in time, also, as the articles, not chronologically arranged, cover some thirty-two years, from 1946 through 1978; as Blos's concepts, not to mention psychoanalytic theory in general, have continued to evolve over these years, at times one feels pushed forward and backward in the flow of the history of our science. Further, the articles were written for a variety of audiences of varying degrees of sophistication, from prestigious lectureships before knowledgeable audiences through psychoanalytic presentations and publications to general or child-psychiatric ones. And finally, the focus of the papers varies from complex theoretical formulations to clinical presentations to speculations on sociocultural phenomena.
The unifying thread is Blos's mind, however, and that is what makes the book so valuable. His is a fascinating mind to get to know. Wisdom is the word that best categorizes its most striking quality, that and a mature and strong sense of irony. For instance, in Chapter I, "The Generation Gap: Fact or Fiction," and in Chapter II, "Reflections on Modern Youth: Aggression Reconsidered," he demonstrates clearly how it can be psychological insights into the complexities of the mi