Reaching across the Boundaries of Culture and Class is a significant and, in many ways, groundbreaking study. The thirteen essays the book comprises are written by analysts working from within a broadly relational perspective. Each of the authors raises important questions about psychoanalytic practice. All focus on the tendency of analytic theory and technique to neglect social, cultural, and racial issues. As both corrective and critique, the book situates psychoanalysis within the multicultural matrix of the contemporary world.

The central thesis of this volume is that psychoanalysis is itself a cultural practice constituted by a set of values that may differ from those held by other groups within our pluralistic society. Rather than treat these differences as markers of deficiency or defect, the authors argue passionately that psychoanalytic practitioners must recognize that such assessments represent only one worldview and do not take into account the lived