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The author of this impressive book is already well known in the profession as a serious contributor to psychoanalytic theory, who has published studies on identification, metapsychology, the paranoid process and internalization. He is also a Roman Catholic priest, and a Jesuit. While this is not quite a unique juncture of callings, it is an unusual one, especially among writers in English, and one bound to be approached with curiosity at the very least, and no doubt with concern by some. It should therefore be said at the beginning that Dr Meissner has written his book with a friendly and welcoming attitude towards other religious positions than the conservative tradition to which he adheres, and is also capable of comprehending unbelief. Psychoanalytically he follows another conservative traditior, of rather more recent origin, namely American ego psychology based on the work of Hartmann and associates, with important modifications stemming from Erikson, Winnicott and Kohut. He has mastered the relevant psychoanalytic literature, so that his introductory summaries of the theory could stand as useful teaching essays in themselves, quite apart from the main theme of the book.
We can gain an idea of the author's method and spirit from a comment in the Preface. Explaining his detailed analysis of Freud's 'The future of an illusion', Meissner points out that
even when he [Freud] was wrong or mistaken about a particular concept or proposition, he was able to approach it in such a way that his position brought along with it an important psychological insight. Consequently—I