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In this recent book by Leonard Shengold, the reader can accompany the author as he continues his exploration of the dark side of human
nature. Shengold, best known for his studies on Soul Murder, has enriched our psychoanalytic understanding of severely disturbed patients who have experienced overstimulation, incest, and abuse; his body of work has deepened our understanding of the pathological sequelae of such traumatic early experiences. “Father, Don't You See I'm Burning?” is a broader study that successfully applies his special knowledge to the full range of human development. In this book Shengold melds the insights of nonclassical analytic theoreticians with his own to arrive at an enhanced understanding of phenomena such as narcissism, perversion, and even normal psychopathology, while still speaking from within the framework of classical analysis. In fact, his work allows retention of the powerful core of that theory while extending its efffectiveness through bold, original formulations.
For example, in this book Shengold calls attention to the ubiquity of our murderous, at times cannibalistic, urges throughout the life cycle and across diagnostic entities. He correctly states that psychoanalysts have never completely accepted the extent and depth of these tendencies. From Freud through Klein, Kernberg, and now Shengold, we are again reminded of our need to more fully acknowledge our murderous instinctual heritage, which all too often has been heightened by trauma. Many clinical impasses are due to our disinclination to fully probe these dark issues. The Holocaust and its more dilute but nonetheless horrifying continuation in the killing fields of Bosnia and Rwanda are contemporary reminders of the validity of Shengold's thesis. His work stands as a bulwark against our perennial need to deny this predominantly biological bedrock of rage and murderous inclinations. Shengold further describes how patients retreat from the burning intensity of such passions to