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This book, a major project undertaken by the American Psychoanalytic Association, is a revised edition of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts, edited by Burness E. Moore and Bernard D. Fine (1990; third edition). The first edition, published in 1967 and revised in 1968, was also edited by Moore and Fine. A version of the current editors' introduction to the volume was published in JAPA as “Psychoanalytic Lexicography: Notes from Two ‘Harmless Drudges’” (Samberg and Auchincloss 2010).
This volume consists of a thirteen-page introduction plus an alphabetical listing (encyclopedia style) of contemporary terms from a variety of theoretical perspectives in use in psychoanalytic discourse. The list of editorial board members, editorial assistants, committee chairs, and contributors reflects the range of theoretical perspectives today current in psychoanalysis. The sheer extensiveness of the list reflects the Herculean nature of the task the editors faced as they put together this volume. “This book,” they state, “represents the concerted efforts of a small army of people who devoted endless hours to its construction” (p. vii).
I would add that this small army certainly would not have succeeded without the efforts of its two generals, to whom we must tip our hats in gratitude. I had not previously read the version of their introduction that was published in JAPA, so reading it here for the first time was an intellectual delight; this essay should be required reading for every psychoanalytic student, regardless of experience or orientation.
The introduction is divided into several sections covering the history of lexicography, the history of psychoanalytic lexicography, the problem of psychoanalytic language, the problem of theoretical pluralism, and methodology. The editors provide us a fascinating history of lexicography (i.e., dictionary-making) dating back to the mid-third millennium B.C.,