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This “mini-book” (p. xix) by the renowned British analyst Patrick Casement is unlikely to become as widely known as its comparably slim sisters—Voltaire's Candide, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Kama's “Metamorphosis.” and Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince—all of which run fewer than a hundred pages. However, this somber prediction must not detract from the fact that Casement's Credo? is a work of great luminosity, grace, and wisdom.
All of seventy-two pages in length, the book succeeds in meaningfully addressing such profound matters as the existence of God, the pitfalls of organized religion, the nature of faith, the misleading comfort offered by the “curse of certainty” (p. 66), and the maturational nudge
given by the stance of “non-certainty” (p. 57), which the author distinguishes from the cowardly indecision of “uncertainty.” The book also comments upon the clinical discourse with homo-religious and hetero-religious analysands and upon some unthought but striking similarities between psychoanalysis and religion. The remarkable thing is that the panoply of topics does not appear forced or narratively breathless. The book flows seamlessly and runs deep.
All this makes my task as a reviewer enjoyable but also difficult. Encountering a psychoanalytic book suffused with the language and imagery of Christianity, I feel inclined to underscore the distinctive Christian voice that is audible, if faintly, throughout the history, theory, and praxis of our field. In fact, I want to suggest that there exists a “Jewish psychoanalysis” and a “Christian psychoanalysis.” The former (represented by Freud, Klein, and Anna Freud) seems anchored in skepticism, stoic ethics, doubt about basic human goodness, respect for speaking, and interpretive interventions; it reflects the mentality of a persecuted minority. The latter (represented by Fairbairn, Winnicott, and Guntrip) seems anchored in credulousness, romantic ethics, doubt about basic human badness, respect for silence, and affi