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THERE IS NO INTELLECTUAL ENTERPRISE in which the gathering of new knowledge and information is important where the reading of books is not a central activity of its practitioners and students. This holds true for psychoanalysis as it does for the humanities, the laboratory sciences, and all the learned professions.
This supplement is a first—an entire issue of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association devoted to books—yet it is but an extension of a practice already prevalent in the intellectual world, as evidenced by time-honored book review sections of newspapers and literary supplements. Although the Journal has always published book reviews and book essays, there has been an increasing time lag between the publication of a book and its review in the Journal. This supplement is an attempt to catch up and to provide our readers with the latest information so that we can hereafter offer a more timely guide for selecting and reading books pertinent for psychoanalysis.
In our modern world even reading book reviews can become a problem, although the intention of reviewing is to make the task of combing the literature easier. Like the compulsive, we become ever more removed from the primary drive and intention and focus on a displaced behavior. On the other hand, reviewers try to make our reading choices more pointed insofar as they tell other professionals and scholars what there is to be read, and they tell their tales from a vantage point that is personal and creative. A book review offers color and opinion and judgment in addition to a recapitulation of the text in summary form. We can admit to being readers of reviews as well as readers of books, without shame.