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Much as with his first book, Beyond Laughter, the reader finds in this new work that Dr Grotjahn's tendency to a free associative approach gives considerably more than a historical summary of past literature and writings on the subject of the family and its vagaries. He takes us into sociological concepts, deals with matters of psycho-analytic technique, offers many therapeutic tours de force, and provides us with a somewhat more intimate look into the author and his philosophy and approach to life and to psycho-analysis than can generally be gleaned from the printed page.
Grotjahn skilfully navigates between designating this 'family approach' as psycho-analysis and relegating it to the 'psychotherapeutic heap'. Though one suspects he really feels this is psycho-analysis in its richest expression, he contents himself with referring to it by euphemisms such as parameters and psycho-analytic psychotherapy.
The 'Family Neurosis' evolved in a dynamic way and grew out of a special situation, i.e. the training analyst faced with professional colleagues for patients in a closely knit educational group setting and with their powerful, not-so-silent wives closely behind. From here the author gradually extended his therapeutic armamentarium, utilizing various combinations of technique depending on the needs of the particular case. Though he presents many details of his thinking as well as of his actual case material, he cautions the reader that there is by no means a fully documented and specific modus operandi in this comprehensive approach to the understanding and treatment of human beings; he urges a cautious but courageous joining with him and other experienced analysts in this endeavour.
I would venture to suggest that the author underestimates the difficulty that many feel in making the jump from a bipolar relationship between analyst and patient to the multipolar transferences and complexity of feelings which arise between the patient, his wife, his family, and the an