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“The Analyst at Work” is the title of one of the sections of this fine book. That would have made an apt, if less poetic, title for the complete work. What comes across throughout this volume is an analyst devoted to his craft, one who is more than happy to discuss with the reader the way he works, thinks, and feels with his patients. So consistent is Poland's approach to his work that, although these chapters are revisions of papers published over the past twenty-five years, I could not tell from the contents of each chapter which was written earlier and which later. Like a patient silversmith, Poland is endlessly fascinated with both his tools and his material—his patients. That fascination is contagious.
The dyad referred to in the subtitle is the clinical psychoanalytic dyad, analyst and patient. Poland considers a number of aspects of the workings of this dyad: the analytic surface, transference, insight, the analyst's neutrality, the analyst's words, the analyst's empathy, the analyst's tact, laughter, long analyses, and self-analysis. Regardless of which aspect he is discussing, the dyad is always the focus. I appreciated the abundance of clinical examples and their clarity. They are what make this book of value. Poland is not much concerned with theory. He is conversant with the analytic literature, but he is interested mainly in describing what works for him, practically, with live patients.
The debate between advocates of one-person and two-person psychologies has been a prominent feature of our meetings and journals for the past twenty years. Small forests have undoubtedly been sacrificed to publish the arguments on either side. Poland makes few apparent references to this debate. What he does, which I found valuable, is to demonstrate in his clinical examples his own resolution of that controversy. Poland takes the approach that both perspectives are of value and are in constant dialectical interaction. He is a living example of Wallerstein's position: “th