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As reviewer of the three volumes edited by Michael Buchholz and Günter Gödde, a Faustian achievement of more than 2300 pages, I will not only explain to our readers what the single volumes are about and what themes they deal with, but will also have the chance to introduce to them a whole series of German colleagues, whom the editors chose for their specific competence and whose names and work deserve to be internationally known. For this reason - and having already introduced Michael Buchholz in my editorial - I start with his co-editor, Günter Gödde (Berlin).
Well known in Germany as the author of a book on the philosophical background of psychoanalysis (Gödde, 1999) and of a book on Freud's daughter Mathilde, Gödde's commitment to the intellectual tradition of psychoanalysis in terms of research and teaching well complements Buchholz's rich professional experience and wide-ranging interdisciplinary interests. As the editors write in their presentation of the three volumes, what they share is what they call Mehrperspektivität (a multiplicity of perspectives) and a three-dimensional view of psychoanalysis, as Beziehungpsychologie (relational psychology), as Psychotherapie, and as Hilfswissenschaft (auxiliary discipline) for a whole range of other disciplines.
Under the title Macht und Dynamik des Unbewussten. Auseinandersetzungen in Philosophie, Medizin und Psychoanalyse [Power and dynamics of the unconscious. Its articulations in philosophy, medicine and psychoanalysis], and with an extent of 718 pages, the first volume presents us with five sections (each with a specific introduction by the editors) including a total of 24 chapters. Of the first two sections, dealing with the philosophical roots of psychoanalysis in the works of Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, the Romantic Movement, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, let me mention Gödde's chapter on Nietzsche as philosopher of the unconscious.
The third section, dealing with the further development of the concept of the uncons