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The fortifications protecting the sanctity of Freud's bible of psychoanalysis crumbled during the latter half of the last century, allowing many creative ideas to enrich and change our field. But with our loss of faith in theoretical ideologies, we also lost the tools needed for a disciplined inquiry into the premises of our approaches and rationality of our actions. Mark Leffert, an outstanding theorist of our present time, as well as a training psychoanalyst, offers us orientation and guidance as we attempt to move from the tainted past (modernism) to some comprehension of the unfamiliar and seemingly radical approaches of the present (postmodernism). This journey is not made easy by the nature of postmodern characteristics of language that can be intentionally obscure and challenge our conventional ideas of discourse. The challenge is similar to that experienced when we face some modern art that seems more concerned with shocking us than satisfying our love affair with art.
Leffert himself writes with admirable clarity and makes this arduous journey extremely worthwhile. The introduction to postmodernism (not one entity, but several trends) and complexity theory is followed by a discussion of postmodern trends in psychoanalysis. The chapter on neuroscience stresses its embeddedness in its own research culture and in its historical time. It reviews the newest thinking concerning our various memory systems. The fascinating and informative chapters on the unconscious and consciousness include a survey of the complex functioning of brain laterality. A critical analysis of key concepts in psychoanalysis, like repression, primary and secondary processes, and the concept of the self will be of great interest. Theory, power, and politics have always been inseparable in psychoanalysis, but it has had its greatest impact on psychoanalytic training. The detailed analysis of how training institutions have functioned will delight all readers.