Hierarchical Concepts in Psychoanalysis: Theory, Research and Clinical Practice.: Edited by Arnold Wilson and John E. Gedo. New York: Guilford Press, 1993, 333 pp., $39.95.

Psychoanalysis is in a period of transition, confronted on the one hand by alternate models of psychic functioning and new data on child development and on the other by the renaissance in understanding brain function. Psychoanalytic theory has become less insular, and practitioners and theorists alike have attempted to broaden

their understanding by integrating multiple models. This volume is an attempt to place psychoanalysis in the mainstream of science from the point of view of both psychology and, to a lesser degree, neuroscience. From this perspective, Wilson and Gedo attempt to transcend the fragmentation of psychoanalysis imposed by multiple models—conflict theory, ego psychology, object relations theory, and so on—in this multiauthor volume that emphasizes hierarchically ordered psychological experiences originating in early life as constant influences on adult functioning. Although this theme integrates the volume, the authors have been encouraged to present their own perspective, and no attempt is made to offer a unified model without contradictions. The data of modern cognitive psychology, linguistics, and neurobiology are utilized. The volume is divided into three sections: Research, Theory and Historical Perspectives, and Clinical Applications. Many of the authors are scholars of psychoanalysis and present views expounded in greater detail elsewhere, often condensing their work in ways that make reading more difficult.

A central theme dominates: this is a systems theory of psychological development transposed to psychic functioning in the adult. Gedo's “eclectic” model is the unifying structure, strongly seconded by Lichtenberg's very imaginative and interesting view of development, carefully supported by empirical data generated by child developmental studies. The attempt at integration with knowledge of brain function, a chapter contributed by Levin, is highly condensed but buttressed by extensive references to Levin's own work. One might view this