Dear Dr Hayley,

I was left with mixed emotions having read Dr Fine's reply to that appeared in Part 4 of the International Review of Psycho-Analysis, Volume 13 (1986).

Initially I was irritated to once again meet Dr Fine's barrage of words, citations, quotations and opinions as he lets fly at some of his favorite targets, one of which is me in this particular instance. He does seem to believe that if he cannot convince then he will overwhelm. In addition, I felt that his reply contained some distortions of my views as expressed in the review of his book, as well as a number of his own opinions confidently expressed as facts. Nevertheless, my irritation quickly passed. It is hard to remain irritated with an author as sincere and dedicated to a particular viewpoint as Dr Fine, even though one may believe, as I do, that his singlemindedness often gets him into somewhat of a muddle. Besides, for all their differences, psychoanalysts want the same thing for their patients, namely that they be relieved of