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This is a book which is in many ways unusual, interesting and informative, containing among many other things an analysis of the present crisis of psychoanalysis. And Reeder suggests a bold solution! The book may be seen as a continuation of and elaboration on themes from Reeder's (2004) examination of the profession's dilemma.
Reeder initially enumerates the reasons for the crisis: psychoanalysis has become financially inaccessible to people who pay for their treatment by taxed income; psychiatry—which has always felt estranged from psychoanalysis—has turned biological; psychoanalysis is increasingly in competition with newer psycho-therapeutic methods; at the same time, psychoanalysis has been subject to massive, predominantly unfounded attacks; and, finally, psychoanalysis has disappointed the exaggerated expectation that it alone would be able to solve all of the difficult tasks facing psychiatry.
Reeder sees psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical psychotherapy as a continuum with shared theory and clinical objectives. He believes it to be more pertinent to emphasize likenesses and shared interests than the differences. ‘As long as the clinical activity is guided by psychoanalytic knowledge, theory and objectives I would characterize it as “psychoanalytic.”’ He further states that he includes the large group of authorized psychotherapists in his discussion as they have common interests concerning the conditions for private practice (p. 13). He points out that the social authorities in Sweden, who authorize psychotherapists, use only the term ‘psychodynamic’—‘psychoanalytical’ is completely absent!
Chapter 1 consists of two parts: an ultra-short description of the history of psychiatry from c. 1800 to the present day, and an impressive, almost 40 pages long, survey