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The subject matter of this book is the ethics of psychoanalysis. The author explores it within an interdisciplinary framework that encompasses aspects of psychoanalysis (and all psychoanalytic psychotherapies), psychiatry and medicine in general, philosophy, society and history. All these apparently disparate subjects coalesce at one point, where they all share a common subject, raise the same question, and pose the same challenge: the subject is the way one human being (or institution) influences another; the question is what is it that distinguishes benevolent from malevolent influencing; the challenge is to formulate a criterion for such a crucial ethical distinction. Hinshelwood charts an impressive course through this demanding journey. That he carries the reader with him despite its complexities and inevitable frustrations is no doubt because the book is not only intellectually engaging and immensely thought-provoking; it is also, surprisingly, very moving.
Of course, the subject matter itself cannot but deeply touch the psychoanalytic reader. Further, Hinshelwood's contact with his subject and with his reader is never a purely intellectual one. From the first page to the last this is a very personal book, imbued with its author's humanity, thoughtfulness and generosity of spirit. This applies both to the way he treats his subject and to the way he treats his reader. In contrast to so many authors of interdisciplinary works, Hinshelwood never leaves his reader alone and never takes for granted his reader's knowledge or even memory: he defines his terms clearly and consistently, carefully introduces new units in the book, summarises previous ones and makes explicit the links between them. The result is a clarity quite exceptional for an interdisciplinary work, which helps to minimise a major difficulty inherent in such works—the inevitable unfamiliarity of all but the most exceptional readers with all the subjects discussed. What this means is that you d