Echoes of the Father

Few psychoanalysts of our era have so directly affrmed the value and importance of Freud's seminal case histories as has Patrick Mahony. Indeed, Mahony has studied in depth these thought provoking texts through numerous published works over many years (1984, 1986, 1993, 1996). Even this present contribution of an intricate, detailed case from his own clinical practice, first published in the official journal of the New York Psychoanalytic Society in 1999, tips its hat to Freud's development of the case history as a psychoanalytic genre. For Mahony, I believe, this personal effort is itself a celebration of what he views as the indispensable role of the case history and the unsurpassed value of Freud's original efforts to convey the complexity of the analytic process in a written text.

Mahony has a profound sense of the capacity of language to achieve a nuanced description of what transpires during psychoanalysis. What he intends to write is precisely then in the spirit of Freud—a text that not only uses language but crafts it to portray the intricate and often unsettling dyadic interplay in which analyst and analysand interrelate over a period of years. Mindful of how fattening such texts can be when they strive to capture the analytic melody, Mahony courageously takes on the task full measure. He is well aware that writing a good case history that hangs together and effectively conveys the multiform levels of contact, affect, forces, and communication is easier said than done.

Nevertheless, Mahony finds the risk acceptable, for he perceives the case history as capable of validating the very process of psychoanalytic treatment. My impression is that his endeavour amounts to a corrective aimed at the current popularity among psychoanalytic authors of relying on the clinical vignette, aided of course by cost-sensitive editors and readers now long unaccustomed to the ardour of working through lengthy, complex case material. Mahony's goal extends well beyond simple descri