The Claustro-Agoraphobic-Dilemma in Psychoanalysis. Fear of Madness, 1st Edition, edited by S. Finkelstein and H. Weiss, 2022,  Routledge, Oxon and New York, £39.95, ISBN: 978-1-032 06013-2 (hbk), ISBN: 978-1-032 06014-9 (pbk), 978-1-032 06018-4 (ebk)

The Claustro-Agoraphobic Dilemma in Psychoanalysis: Fear of Madness, edited by Susan Finkelstein and Heinz Weiss, is a uniquely organized exploration into the history and development of the treatment of patients whose internal object relations are confused and confusing. These analysands seek relationship even as their defences against emotional intimacy war against obtaining it. The fear of being forever stuck inside the object wars with the fear of being forever alone. The war itself is demonstrated via a repetitive phenomenon of broken relationships and disappointments, in part due to an inability of the patient to discern what is real. In addition, the war evokes set narratives that in and of themselves maintain the dilemma. Of course, these are replayed within the analytic dyad. Their dilemma leaves them in constant psychic pain. It often also leaves their analysts baffled.

The editors have taken a distinctive stance in their editing by providing the reader with a theoretical and meta-psychological context for the development of Henri Rey’s 1979 coining of the term “claustro-agoraphobic dilemma”. This term names and marks a stuck place within the analysand that impedes development. Often, this clinical dilemma reflects an impasse that leaves both the analyst and the analysand confused, frustrated and fearing madness. The placement of Rey’s paper in the centre of the book enables the reader to approach his ideas about conflictual intimacy in a spatial manner, much as Rey himself approached object relations – as a function of the relation to and movement within the psychic space of self and object. The concept of psychic dimensionality is also investigated by the editors’ choice of papers and their introductions to them. This editorial stance parallels the position analysts often take when attempting to discover what is happening in the analytic relationship. We are both participating and observing as we contextualize the emotional experience of the hour. In doing