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The volume, Lives, Events and Other Players, consists of a series of papers on applied analysis put together in a Festschrift to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Downstate Psychoanalytic Institute. Except for the excellent first chapter, specifically written by the editor, Joseph Coltrera, for this series and presenting an overview: 'Directions in psychobiography', all the other chapters have previously been published elsewhere. They span some 30+ years in time, the earliest being three brief chapters by Kanzer on Dostoyevsky, written in the late 40's and the latest, a contribution by Shengold on soul murder.
The acid test for quality in applied analysis is the problem of method—how does the author deal with the absence of a live patient with whom to have a dialogue? What aspect of psychoanalysis is being applied and, finally, what are the psychoanalytically interesting questions he asks of his subject? In a masterful review article, Coltrera examines the science of psychobiography. He chooses the socio-cultural setting of the origins of this enterprise—German Romantic world of Middle Europe—and its place in the history of ideas, an outgrowth of enlightenment. Coltrera reminds us that the most Freud ever claimed for psychobiography was validity, not historical truth; and along with Ricoeur, he stresses that the application of psychoanalytic principles to art, literature and biography should be analogical rather than of a literal order. Further, 'the problem with most psychobiographic studies is that they more readily explain how great men are similar—through character theory and myth criticism—rather than in the unique ways they differ, in the way they are creative' (p. 27).
As the collected papers span the period of ego psychology, it is possible to see the increasing inclusion in the more recent contributions of issues of development, aggression, narcissism and structural conflict. Of the 10 articles included in this book, seven are oriented around the