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Psychoanalysis will soon be a hundred years
old yet we still know little about development of the individual after adolescence and through adulthood. A magnificent body of knowledge about ordinary childhood has grown up in the years since Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In comparison understanding of the articulation and development of mental processes through maturity to death has been sporadic. Of course this is not surprising; adult behaviour could not be comprehended in depth without prior knowledge of its childhood origins. Now, however, with the impetus of ego psychology, study of later life is taking root.
In this context Anthony & Benedek's book is a milestone in the history of psychoanalysis. It is the first volume to attempt to deal comprehensively with the subject of parenthood and will be warmly welcomed for this alone.
Although the contributions are held together by a common psychoanalytic understanding, the editors aim to be multi-disciplinary. This is ambitious but there is a star-studded cast of writers to support them. The book is worth reading if only to savour the many fine minds at work. But how does it perform its avowed task of drawing attention to the whole range of parental problems and experiences, normal and pathological?
There is a rousing introduction by the editors outlining the psychobiological approach to understanding parenthood. With conviction they ask us to extend our vision of psychodynamics to include the process of evolutionary biology as it is repeated in each human being. Stimulated by this breadth of vision the reader turns eagerly to papers by a biologist, anthropologist and sociologist. Charles Kaufmann, writing as a biologist, gives a fascinating account of parental behaviour in certain species of monkeys. But he studiously recoils from any discussion of possible correlations between primate instinctual patterns and the unconscious of man. Here he is showing due scientific caution yet surely it