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This important book first appeared as a supplementary issue of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and has now reappeared in book form with three previously published papers (by K. R. Eissler, Phyllis Greenacre, and René A. Spitz) added. Many of the papers bear witness to the current conflict between the striving to
remain "classical" and the pressure to adapt our psychoanalytic procedures to take account of the very real gains in clinical understanding of the past decade or two. This conflict, which the historian may one day judge to reflect healthy development, understandably finds expression as opposition between necessary "innovations" on the one hand, and "dangers to be guarded against" on the other.
The book starts with a group of papers on insight. The first is by Anna Freud, who draws attention to the special problems encountered by the child analyst because the analytic method "runs counter to the child's own natural inclination." It is only as he matures that the need for technical modifications is diminished. There follows a paper by Hansi Kennedy proposing a developmental view of insight. In child analysis our interpretations help the child resolve conflicts holding up his development, rather than give insight into the past. While the child may not yet possess an internalized analyzing function, understanding of the present external and internal situation can be considered to be insight. Next, a scholarly review of the role of insight in psychoanalysis by Peter Neubauer leads him to place special emphasis on cognitive factors and on the role of integration and synthesis in insight formation. A thoughtful and stimulating paper by Harold P. Blum on curative and creative aspects of insight, reflecting the close link between theory and technique, completes the quartet. Insight does not necessarily lead to change, but it fosters structural change, which has to be continually assessed by the analyst. Insight, Blum notes, is the