First, a bit of advice. This is not a book that you take to the beach or that you can plan to scan some weekend. Rather it is somewhat of an encyclopedic review of a number of significant contributors to psychoanalysis, most of whom have had a special impact on the author with some notable omissions that the author confesses that either interest him less or with whom he is not too familiar. The ones that he reviews and discusses are amongst the major theoreticians in psychoanalysis, and his summaries and critiques are excellent. For that alone this book would be a wonderful guide for a student of psychoanalysis. It allows anyone who knows but little about Bion (say) or Fairbairn to learn a great deal in the succinct chapters that Ellman covers in clear, concise language.

The book begins with a number of chapters on Freud and proceeds through outstanding summaries of Anna Freud, Heinz Hartmann, Melanie