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Containing Introduction and Conclusion sections, and divided into six main clinical chapters (entitled, respectively, “The Ego,” “The Superego,” “Trauma and the Repetition Compulsion,” “Narcissism,” “Masochism,” and “The Dreamwork”), which may be read individually, this book unfortunately falls short of its intended and laudatory goal, which is to compose diverse psychonalytic theories into a syncretism.
Nevertheless, the book is well worth the attention of every serious student of psychoanalysis.
For one thing, it is written in very clear, concise, and readily intelligible English, devoid of the pedantic, cabalistic expression that characterizes so many a psychoanalytic opus. The book is a pleasure to read for this reason alone.
For another thing, this book contains an encyclopedic review of the literature of the subjects covered. Dr. Rothstein has provided an organized and incisive description of the work of 96 authors.
Acknowledging his indebtedness to Waelder, and relying for a starting point upon the interrelated concepts of overdetermination and multiple function, Dr. Rothstein tries to resolve the competition between paradigm proponents by adopting a multifactorial approach to clinical data. In his introductory section, he rightly and eloquently inveighs against the tendencies of the different theoreticians to polarize disagreements by casting them as either/or issues, and by their polemicizing about differences.
Regrettably, Dr. Rothstein's effort at finding phlogiston sometimes ends up being simply trite. For example, the chapter “The Ego” concludes by reiterating the elementary proposition that, “This is not an all-or-none issue, and one or another perspective may be more or less useful at various moments in an analytic process.”
Throughout the entire book, the author struggles with the subject of narcissism, and the last chapter (on the dreamwork) provides some interesting illustrative case histories.
In conclusion, the main shortcoming of this otherwise excelle