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Based upon a series of papers written over the last 20 years, many of which have appeared in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Doubt, Conviction and the Analytic Process is a wise and subtle book whose ultimate subject is the mind of the analyst and the vicissitudes of knowing and not knowing in the analytic situation. It is heavily influenced by, and often seems to be in dialogue with, the thinking of Feldman's contemporary Kleinian colleagues, John Steiner and Ron Britton, as well as his teachers and immediate predecessors Betty Joseph, Hanna Segal, Wilfred Bion and Herbert Rosenfeld. It is a powerful contribution to the best of contemporary Kleinian clinical theory and thinking and deserves a place as a fundamental text alongside such other books as Joseph's (1989) Psychic Equilibrium, Steiner's Psychic Retreats and Britton's (1998) Belief and Imagination.
Feldman's contribution is distinguished by its emphasis on the importance of the analyst's taking nothing for granted in the search for truth and keeping alive the possibility of questioning even the most positive seeming developments. Thus, for example, in an early example (Illustration 3 of his first chapter, pp. 12-17), he notes the tendency of the analytic interaction to assume the form of his interpretively addressing material that the patient presents and, even though from one perspective that address may be seen as the reasonable application of analytic technique, he sustains a healthy sense of skepticism and doubt as he reflects upon the possible meanings, both erotic and defensive, to the patient and in the transference of his being the one who winds up doing the thinking for the pair. Similarly, in his discussion of projective identification (Chapter 3, ‘Projective Identification: The Analyst's Involvement’), he reveals himself to be especially sensitive to how a close and good feeling connection between patient and analyst may also serve as collusion and enactment:
[W]e have learnt not only