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Aspects of René Spitz's work are well known and valued by professionals in many fields, including among others, psychoanalysis, infant psychiatry, child development, experimental child psychology and paediatrics. Spitz's work, however, has not been readily available in one or even several volumes. René A. Spitz: Dialogues from Infancy. Selected Papers, edited by Robert N. Emde remedies this problem and does a great deal more. Emde's selections from Spitz's work are not only well chosen but also comprehensive. Robert Emde is a most distinguished scholar and researcher in his own right. He worked closely with Spitz in Denver for many years, and this provides him with an invaluable scientific and personal familiarity with René Spitz. Emde's respect and affection for Spitz are apparent in his careful and dedicated editing.
Dialogues from Infancy provides many rewards and pleasures and few drawbacks. Emde groups Spitz's papers in chronological order within seven topics. The topics provide valuable organization and orientation for the reader, but, most important, the chronological order allows the reader to experience the evolution of Spitz's thinking and ideas. Spitz was analysed by Freud, was a practising analyst, and the clinical and theoretical aspect of psychoanalysis is a consistent point of departure for his work. Dialogues from Infancy presents the way in which analytic principles and thinking informed the remarkable breadth of Spitz's interests, curiosity, and imagination. In the context of such diversity, Spitz's integrative thinking, his ability to evolve frameworks and organizing principles and to re-evaluate them as his research progressed and changed is most impressive. There is much to be said for reading through the entire volume, but it is also valuable as a source for the individual papers.
Emde provides a brief introduction for each of the seven sections of Dialogues from Infancy. These introductions are excellent; they are concise and prov