Practice and Precept in Psychoanalytic Technique: Selected Papers of Rudolph M. Loewenstein: Introduction by Jacob A. Arlow. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1982, 240 pp., $22.50.

Whether or not one has already read each of Loewenstein's contributions to the literature on psychoanalytic technique, the opportunity to study and think about them as a collected body of work should reconfirm their power to stimulate and instruct analysts at every level of experience. Although the title of the volume suggests an emphasis on precepts, the approach of this master of theory, practice, and teaching would have been better conveyed by the title "Practice and Concept in Psychoanalytic Technique." The various analytic precepts, maxims, and rules referred to in the papers are unfailingly subjected to a searching review in the light of practical experience and current conceptual understanding. If indeed there is a single general precept or didactic injunction implied throughout the book it is the recommendation for continuing attention to the mutual validation of practice and concepts. Repeatedly, in the discussion of clinical examples or theoretical formulations, that attitude is demonstrated superbly by Loewenstein. He strongly urges that practice be individualized to the requirements and capacities of the patient, but guided firmly by concepts