Psychoanalysis in a New Context: By Arnold H. Modell. Madison, Conn.: Int. Univ. Press, 1984, 294 pp., $32.50.

While not labeled as such, Psychoanalysis in a New Context represents the author's views on psychoanalytic theory and process which he has

set forth over the last 22 years. Heavily influenced by the ideas of Balint and Winnicott, he advocates a shift in emphasis for psychoanalysts. Rather than to focus exclusively on intrapsychic dynamics, a one-person psychology, he suggests viewing psychoanalysis as a two-person psychology. As a two-person psychology the focus becomes the process that occurs between two people; examination is directed to the context of interpersonal relatedness and interaction, the matrix of an object-relations understanding of human motivation and functioning. Modell feels that both traditional psychoanalysis—which focuses on psychic reality—and ego psychology—which believes that "maturation is equated with growing autonomy from the environment, a common confusion between functioning and relating" (p. 5) minimize the contribution of the interpersonal. "Psychoanalytic knowledge arises in the context of a two-person intersubjective psychology" (p. 7); "we are less separate than we wish to believe" (p. 6). Modell places special emphasis on the role of affects, noting that affects, not words, are the essential vehicle for interpersonal communication and the source of essential psychoanalytic data. However, Modell does not suggest that a two-person psychology replace the more traditional views of structure formation and internalization, for he feels the two systems are complementary. Yet, he notes, herein lies a paradox, for the assumptions and theories of each system are incompatible with each other. Examination of the epistemological problems that accompany this paradox lead Modell to discuss some of the basic dilemmas of psychoanalysis—the paradox between the intrapsychic and the interpersonal, between the one-person and the two-person frames of reference, between hermeneutics and causality, between drive and self psychology. His discus