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Like many of the volumes devoted to psychoanalysis in the French “Que sais-je?” series, Hélène Tessier's recent contribution provides an excellent historical review, and a stimulating critical overview, of central concepts in our field. Readers should be aware, however, that this book was written for the French market. Unlike the equivalent Anglo-American publishing concept of the primer series (for example, the now defunct Modern Masters Series), readers of “Que sais-je?” are presumed to be sophisticated and already quite knowledgeable in any given subject. This is certainly true of the volumes devoted to analytic topics. Although they are pitched to a general audience, these texts are generally written at a high level, without much concession to the casual reader or intellectual beginner. Tessier's contribution follows in a fairly long line of distinguished contributors in this popular series, including André Green's (1990) dense book on the castration complex, which has gone into three printings, and Dominique Scarfone's (2004) excellent history of drive theory.
Tessier's perspective on American psychoanalysis is of particular value for North American readers because it provides the freshness of an outsider's view with the familiarity of an insider's knowledge.1 For those who