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Dr Wallace addresses the nature of consciousness, aggression, sublimation, the basic transference and the relation of affects to psychic structure, all within the mainstream of psychoanalytic conflict psychology, with one important exception, and against the backdrop of the pleasure-unpleasure cycle. This is presented in a series of three essays aimed at theoretical issues.
The second part of the book addresses these ideas within the context of the therapeutic process. Clinical vignettes highlight aspects of the psychoanalytic situation and the emergence of the transference neurosis. Throughout, the notion is presented that our theory can and should be revised on the basis of clinical experience, and that these revisions will extend our understanding of the mind and further our psychoanalytic thinking.
The author believes there is a lack of integration and understanding of the roles of gratification and frustration in psychoanalytic theory. He questions Freud's emphasis on the role of frustration in initiating psychic development. He stresses that Freud wrote about the concepts of identification and sublimation before the recognition of aggression as a basic drive and the formulation of the structural theory.
This review will focus on certain aspects in order to give the flavour of the ideas which rest on the economic viewpoint and the pleasure-unpleasure cycle as a central integrating theme. The points I have selected include: (a) a theory of consciousness, (b) the development of the mind as related to the pleasure-unpleasure cycle of satisfaction, (c) the basic transference and/or personal relationship with the analyst, (d) affects as related to psychic structure, (e) the role of aggression and (f) the therapeutic process of analysis.
Dr Wallace challenges the notion that the psychic apparatus tends towards a constancy of energy and a steady state. Like other authors he points to the search for excitement in foreplay, novel experiences, as well as interest in