Foundations for Conceptual Research in Psychoanalysis: Anna Ursula Dreher London:  Karnac Books, 2000,  200 pp.

This book sets out to promote conceptual research. It does so by offering the reader two methodological arguments in favourof doing conceptual research in psychoanalysis. The book is well written and informative, taking the form of a sustained argument to show that conceptual research is essential to psychoanalytic progress. The author begins by defining conceptual research. All systematic attempts to clarify the explicit and implicit use of concepts qualify. Included in clarifying conceptual issues are logical consistency, the analyst's use of concepts, optimal clarification of concepts in light of recent developments, the historical origin of concepts, how the history of a concept view designates changes in psychoanalytic theory, examination of current uses of a concept in clinical practice, and suggestions for different uses of a concept. The aims of conceptual research are to reconstruct the modifications in psychoanalytic concepts throughout their historical development, and to capture the direction of conceptual change, thereby precluding unclear and inconsistent psychoanalytic language. The author allies herself with Kuhn and Feyerabend. She believes strongly that there is a place for non-empirical research. In her view, the added advantage of the non-empirical approach taken by conceptual research is that it provides an avenue into the origins of conceptual change and psychoanalytic creativity.