In Pursuit of Psychic Change: The Betty Joseph Workshop edited by Edith Hargreaves & Arturo Varchevker New Library Series London:  Brunner-Routledge and Institute of Psychoanalysis, 2004,  206 pp.

In 1962 Betty Joseph began to chair a postgraduate clinical seminar devoted to understanding psychic change and the obstacles that oppose it. From a small beginning, the seminar has continued and its membership has remained the same for many years, forging strong group cohesion and the ability to present clinical material openly over a long period. The group locates itself within the Kleinian tradition, but each member has different emphases, preferences, and interests. In this volume, which takes up the influence that Joseph has had upon the work of the group members, each analyst looks at the total transference situation. Each tries to understand in his or her own style the ways that he is pushed, pulled, nudged, and seduced into acting to support the patient's defenses and unconscious fantasies. Each feels that the subtle but powerful ways in which the patient unconsciously pulls for the analyst to enact something with him are an important clue as to how he is being used in the session. Out of the study group has emerged a number of analysts, including Joseph herself, who have made wonderful contributions to psychoanalysis. In particular, they address immediate technical issues such as, “What sort of situation am I in with this patient?” and “What can I interpret that might make contact with him?”

Almost all the papers center on specific clinical problems and use extensive clinical examples. For the reader not used to the style of the British Kleinians, the examples can be complex and dense, but the effort to understand this method of looking at material closely is well worth it. The long swaths of clinical material are extremely helpful as so much depends on how the patient uses or misuses the analyst, the interpretations, and his own mind. The papers are also full of technical “gems” that open up new ways of looking at the analytic situation. There are eleven papers, and I am going