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Lay Analysis: Life inside the Controversy is an exquisite tour de force, a captivating and detailed documentary of one of the more unfortunate chapters in the history of psychoanalysis. This book is three books in one. It is a history of the psychoanalytic movement, with the lens focused on one aspect in particular: that is, lay analysis. It is the auto-biography of a man dedicated to the psychoanalytic movement who has spent years serving organized psychoanalysis as president of both the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) and the International Psycho-Analytical Association (IPA). Finally, it is a dissertation on strife—strife within an organization and strife between organizations as a profession struggles with its identity. This book is a must for anyone interested in the history of psychoanalysis, the dynamics of organizational conflict, the details of the painful lawsuit, or the emotional life of a dedicated and creative professional within organized psychoanalysis.
Wallerstein begins with the origins of psychoanalysis and describes how, in just a few short years, a profession began to grow and flourish. Alongside of the growth, arguments quickly began to fester about who should gain entry to this exciting new profession. Wallerstein explores the events of 1910 that signaled the origins of the different organizational and educational paths taken as psychoanalysis developed historically on the two sides of the Atlantic. Two major publishing events occurred in 1910: Freud's paper on “wild” psychoanalysis, and the Flexner report. Freud sounded an alarm that practitioners idiosyncratically applying psychoanalytic concepts could be hurtful to patients. This led first to the establishment of the IPA and a commitment to shared standards of professional practice, and second, by 1920, to the