La Babele Dell' Inconscio. Lingua Madre E Lingue Straniere Nella Dimensione Analitica. (The Babel of the Unconscious. Mother Tongue and Foreign Tongues in the Analytic Dimension.): By J. Amati Mehler, S. Argentieri and J. Canestri. Milano: Raffaele Cortina Editore. 1990.

To write a review of a book written in a language that is not available to the majority of readers is fraught with some considerable risks as it might be tempting to say too much to the point of confusing them. The alternative is to condense the many intricate problems tersely described in the subtitle. This is what the authors attempted to do in the paper 'The babel of the unconscious' which appeared in the International Review of Psycho-Analysis in 1990, when they hardly did justice to their fascinating and disturbing book.

Language problems have always been with us, as revealed by myth, but psychoanalysts have been particularly exposed to them in so far as few of them have been able to read Freud's writings in German. The barrier of language which prevents many psychoanalysts from becoming acquainted with advanced research carried out in Latin America, the Scandanavian countries, Italy, Germany, etc. is reflected in the absence of appropriate references. This contribution by the authors has caused me to reflect on the fact that we are seldom informed about the language used in an analysis, even when it is apparent that one member of the dyad or even both of them are not using their mother tongue. (To my surprise I have recently come across a paper where it is described how a patient stipulated that the analysis should be carried out in an unusual language. When the analyst acceded to the request, there was harsh criticism from many colleagues.)

I do not believe I will be the only reader who will be subjected to a rush of memories and reminiscences when reading this volume. Having been compelled by external circumstances to have an analysis in English, it was not long before I became aware of the frustration arising from not being able ever to express my feelings in Italian. The experience was not easily forgotten. When in later years I tried to raise the issue, especially when I was becoming involved in educational matters, I was confronted by a blank wall