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Eugene Mahon's Rensal the Redbit can arguably be compared to such classics as Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince and Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, both of which were written for children and adults, or at least were intended to make contact with the adult's “inner child.” The two interlocutors of Mahon's story—Rensal, a small curious “redbit” (more later) and The Tall One, a grown-up wise one—meet on a regular basis and get involved in deep discussions about various philosophical and existential issues. Mahon draws our attention not just to the content of their conversations, but to the dynamics of their interactions and gradual changes in Rensal as the result of their relationship. Mahon invites us to join their conversations, which revolve around the central themes of the book: How does psychoanalysis work, and what happens during the psychoanalytic process? How does a mind develop, and how does a person grow? Mahon has of course investigated such issues in his wonderful formal papers, and to some extent I think this book may be viewed as a poetic summary of his work.
The book comprises sixteen chapters, whose rich metaphorical language and vivid imagery are sure to stimulate the reader's imagination and associations. It is impossible to overlook similarities with psychoanalytical process and concepts. In reading the book I was reminded of Ogden's thinking about different psychoanalytic perspectives being much like different languages. Despite the overlap of semantic content, each language creates additional meaning that cannot be generated by the other languages. The interpreter becomes an active preserver and creator of meaning (Ogden 1990). While reading Rensal, I often found certain passages triggering concepts from Klein, Bion, Winnicot, Ogden, or Freud, Other readers could easily hear the echoes of other analytic theories.