Steven Ellman's book, When Theories Touch, presents an historical and theoretical integration of psychoanalytic thought that is intended to accomplish two related purposes. First, Ellman presents his particular way of understanding and combining psychoanalytic thinkers, starting with Freud and moving on to contemporary contributors such as Bach, Mitchell, Aron, and Benjamin. Second, and perhaps more interesting for readers who ally themselves with Interpersonal and Relational positions, he wants to counter what he sees as the dichotomizing critique of Freudian thinking presented by Stephen Mitchell, beginning with his and Jay Greenberg's (1983) publication of Object Relations and Psychoanalytic