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When I was asked to give my opinion on Ahmed Fayek's book, The Crisis in Psychoanalysis, I was told that it would be interesting to hear the point of view of a person beginning her psychoanalytical career about the work of a seasoned analyst at the end of his career. Ahmed Fayek has built up an impressive experience as an analyst, an educator, a hospital psychologist and a university teacher. Given this context, you may understand the great degree of humility with which I shall give my views on the contents of this book, the purpose of which is to return Freud's theories to their rightful rank.
Ahmed Fayek's plan is to prove that Freud's theories contain all the elements necessary to the practice of psychoanalysis, and that it is quite unnecessary to appeal to other theoretical perspectives in order to obtain a complete picture of the human psyche. Furthermore, in his view, the use of a plurality of theories and the existence of several schools of thought threaten the coherence and the very existence of psychoanalysis.
The author fears that psychoanalysis may collapse under the chaos of divergent, sometimes contradictory approaches, none of which, he argues, is capable of presenting a complete and general metapsychology comparable to Freud's. According to him, the lack of interest in psychoanalysis and the crisis which has enveloped psychoanalysis for many years now are caused by the loss of perception of Freudian doctrine as a coherent, intact thought system, no aspect of which can be changed without destroying the whole.
Fayek accuses those who criticize Freudian doctrine of having mainly attacked his metapsychology, the notion of the intrapsychic and psychodynamics as the weak points of his theory, points which need to be reformulated or could be eliminated without much impact on Freudian theory. According to him, these elements are now considered outdated and useless and this point of view is established and indisputable.
I have to say that I was very surprised when