You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Four case studies are presented in this volume, carefully selected by the editors for their readability, and their ability to convey with clarity, and eloquence, the evolution and development of an analytic process. Considerable detail is offered to enhance understanding and identification with the process, but, as the editors indicate, they have attempted to strike a balance so as not to overwhelm the reader with too much detail. Two of these clinical studies are considered classics in the field, one by Rudolph Loewenstein—the analysis of a patient treated in the 1930s and first published in 1956—and the other by Leo Rangell, originally published in 1952. The other two are more recent analyses—one by Irwin Rosen, and a child analytic case described by Calvin Colarusso—both newly presented here. Each case, with an introduction and summary by the editors, is, in turn, discussed by two prominent analysts. This makes quite interesting reading.
The effort of the editors is commendable. As they write in their preface, 'This book was planned to satisfy the crying need for clinical data detailing the course of analysis from beginning to end. Only with such data can the serious scholar or the careful clinician get an accurate sense of what comprises an analysis. The data will enable the reader to evaluate the intermeshing work of patient and analyst and the mode of therapeutic action of a successful psychoanalysis' (p. 1). The ensuing responses to each case presented are 'intended to call attention to the new thoughts the cases would force upon the reader, current theory, technical engagements, and even errors and how they had affected the treatments. The discussions were to be freewheeling and unrestricted' (p. 3).
Guided by the high standards established by Freud's case reports, this undertaking is clearly intended to provide a rich source of clinical data, with the addition of differing perspectives on it. Leo Rangell further points out in his own introductory r