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Diversity is in. No longer is the field of psychoanalysis characterized by an orthodox Freudian core from which radiate divergent schools, founded by one or another rebel or expellee from Freud's inner circle, distinguished from one another according to which aspects of classical theory they have rejected or supplemented. Instead we are to celebrate the creative multiplicity of theories, each with its own valid perspective, each bringing something valuable and unique to the emerging psychoanalytic dialogue. That Robert Langs, champion of the indispensable sanctity of the analytic frame, has edited a volume offering a tour of the current analytic scene inclusive of Intersubjective, Relational, Kleinian, and even Jungian (which not all that long ago would have been considered outside the psychoanalytic pale) perspectives, reveals how ecumenical dialogue has become the new mainstream. That such a volume exists at all is in some ways as interesting as any of its contents.
By and large, each chapter offers a clear and concise summary of a different theoretical school by one of its leading proponents. The titles of the 12 chapters indicate the schools that are covered: Interactional Psychoanalytic Theory, Relational Psychoanalysis, Intersubjectivity Theory, The Interpersonal Approach to Psychoanalysis, Constructivist Accounts of Psychoanalysis, Control-Mastery Theory, Self Psychology, Core Conflict Theory, The Work of Melanie Klein, Jungian Psychology, An Evolutionary Biological Perspective on Psychoanalysis, and Langs' own Communicative Approach. No such collection can be exhaustive, but some may lament the exclusion of any mention of the legacy of Karen Horney, Jacques Lacan, Morton and Estelle Shane's Attachment Theory, or that Joseph Lichtenberg's Motivational System Theory is relegated to a paragraph within the chapter outlining self psychology. Most remarkably, no representative of any current Freudian school is included—Core Conflict theory being the closest derivat