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This book traces the long, productive development of an idea that first inspired Sid Blatt early in his clinical career, some 30 years ago: that attention to ‘phenomenology … rather than symptoms’ (p. 8) consistently revealed the existence of two distinct types of depression, an ‘anaclitic (dependent)’ type, and an ‘introjective (self-critical)’ type. For this reviewer, Blatt's book called to mind the old saw ‘There are two kinds of people in the world—those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't’ (attributed to the actor and humorist Robert Benchley, and—with slightly altered phrasing—to Woody Allen). Remarkably, Blatt is both kinds of people. As a clinical psychologist with a prodigious research career, he seeks meaningful, quantifiable similarities within groups, and also meaningful differences between groups. As an analyst, he remains mindful of individual differences. At its best—as when he brings an idiographic sensibility to research design, gracefully melding quantitative and qualitative approaches—Blatt's work shows what good can come of being two kinds of people.
As bearer of dual citizenship, Blatt moves about freely in two countries (clinical psychoanalysis and academia). This book seems to assume the same, unusually high degree of mobility in its readers. Sadly, few analysts share Blatt's comfort with clinical research methodology, and few researchers share his grasp of analytic theory and technique. Readers who can fully appreciate the sweep of Blatt's work may be few and far between. For those who can, a certain tension between Blatt the analyst and Blatt the researcher will animate this book. For analysts, the notion that there are two kinds of people runs against the grain. We may wonder: is Blatt the researcher imposing a dichotomy where, really, there are important continuities? However, follow Blatt into his own and others' carefully considered research and we may take seriously the possibility that there are tw