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This book brings together thirteen papers written by Dr Rosenfeld between 1947 and 1964. It reflects a searching and painstaking investigation into the psychopathology and treatment of schizophrenia and allied disorders. Six of the papers deal directly and exclusively with schizophrenia: the application of psycho-analysis to acute and chronic schizophrenia; the psychopathology and management of depersonalization phenomena and of confusional states in schizophrenic patients: the nature and psycho-analysis of the superego conflict in schizophrenia; and the psychotic transference. Other papers examine homosexuality, hypochondriasis, narcissistic disorders, and drug addictions; as well as the superego and ego ideal; and problems of acting out, in the light of newer knowledge of early object relations obtained from the psycho-analytic investigation in depth of schizophrenia. A final paper is devoted to a review of the literature on drug addictions.
All the papers with the exception of the last mentioned, make use of detailed and carefully selected clinical material to illustrate how the author arrived at his conclusions. Most are written with a lucidity and restraint that make reading both enjoyable and immensely rewarding.
Twenty years ago, Fenichel (1945, p. 452) stressed the scientific importance of the analysis of schizophrenia. 'Neuroses', he wrote,
represent a regression to infantile sexuality. The psychoanalysis of neurosis brought about the understanding of infantile sexuality. Schizophrenia represents a regression to the primitive levels of the ego. The psychoanalysis of schizophrenics will permit the understanding of the evolution of the ego.
At the same time, he wrote, there was, as yet, no satisfactory general theory of schizophrenia.
Although Fenichel understood the value of psycho-analytic investigation into schizophrenia, he was generally pessimistic about the outcome of treatment and advocated many modifications in the psycho-analytic approach. His