Science-fiction et psychanalyse. L'Imaginaire social de la S.F., by Marcel Thaon, Gérard Klein, Jacques Goimard, Tobie Nathan and Ednita P. Bernabeu, Paris:  Dunod, 1986,  243 pages, 142 f.

This collection brings together six new essays by French specialists on science fiction and its relations with psychoanalysis; it further includes a translation of a short paper by Bernabeu (Bernabeu, 1957). Klein is by far the best-known of the contributors, at least in French circles. A novelist in his own right (Klein, 1987), he is also a coeditor of the ‘Ailleurs et demain’ collection published by Laffont since 1969 and has done much to promote the popularity of science fiction in France. Like Thaon and Goimard, he has contributed extensively to a variety of critical journals. Nathan, in contrast, is more likely to be known for his clinical papers on ethnopsychiatry.

The collection may appear more original to a French reader than it would to an English or American specialist. Despite the vigorous promotional efforts of Klein and others science fiction remains a relatively marginal genre in France, and has only relatively recently attracted serious critical attention. French collections and anthologies tend to be dominated by translations rather than by home-grown products, and that situation is reflected in the content of these essays. It is significant that all the authors to be discussed in any detail (Lovecraft, Vogt and Dick)