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I once had a four-hour meal at the French Laundry in Napa Valley, California. I was reminded of this experience when reading the new book Battling the Life and Death Forces of Sadomasochism: Clinical Perspectives, edited by Harriet Basseches, Paula Ellman, and Nancy R. Goodman. After the first course at the French Laundry I felt I had arrived in culinary heaven and nothing could compare to this first savory delight, only to find that each successive course added to the pleasure of the experience. The intellectual and clinical delights in this book begin with Frederic Perlman's preface (and how many times have you heard an appreciation for a preface?) and continue with each chapter. Perlman, the editor of the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies book series, sees the series as a way to “encourage and enable our members to transcend insular parochialism of psychoanalytic thought and so, over time, to (search for) [parenthesis added] a multilingual, multicultural professional community” (pp. xix-xx). Here I believe Perlman has highlighted one of the central issues for psychoanalysis at this time in our history. The book succeeds admirably in this regard, as we read multiple voices speaking about this vexing clinical syndrome. Perlman also highlights something very important in this book: even as these patients can't help but denigrate our efforts, “there is good reason to labor on with a measure of confidence in the psychoanalytic enterprise and the long-term promise it holds” (p. xxii).
The editors begin the book with a chapter describing how the book came about. One is immediately struck with their remarkable candor in discussing personal feelings and fears, and this openness continues throughout the book. One immediately empathizes with these three clinicians as they struggle with feelings we are all familiar with but continually fight off. This working-through process can only occur with colleagues one feels great trust with, and the three editors h