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The title, Psychoanalysis and the Sciences, and the author's statement of his aims in the Preface suggest that the relationship between psychoanalysis and science will be the main theme of this book. In fact, however, the book is, in large part, concerned with the author's personal vision of psychoanalysis. In the articulation of this vision one finds scattered comments about psychoanalysis and the sciences, as well as many other matters, including the historical setting of psychoanalysis, the relationship between Freud and Ferenczi, Freud, Jung, Sabina Spielrein and 'the torments of countertransference', the role of affect and 'visceral experiences' in psychoanalysis, and so on. Hence, if one expects a careful and systematic examination of the 'methodological and epistemological lines [on which psychoanalytic] theory is constructed' (p. ix), one will be disappointed. One will also be disappointed if one expects Haynal to deliver on his goal of facilitating a 'better dialogue … between the analysts on the one hand, and between the analysts and the representatives of other sciences on the other' (p. 246).
One will not be disappointed by this book, however, if one is content with learning something about the observations and insights of an experienced analyst who has given much thought to the nature of the psychoanalytic enterprise. Haynal's vision of psychoanalysis is that of an 'encounter between two human beings, two individuals who will try to express themselves and even to care for each other … so much so that analysts can well be said to have as much need of their analysands as the analysands have of them' (p. 15). He believes, along with Ferenczi, that 'visceral experiences', as well as insights and understanding, are necessary for analytic change. He accepts, too, the modern view that 'the work of analysis is the building of a new narrative structure' (p. 80) and that 'countertransference … is the analyst's instrument of perception and affective echo' (p