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This book is part of a Tavistock Clinic series, some volumes of which have already been reviewed in this journal. It is presented as a tribute to the multiple contributions of Hanna Segal to the understanding of the relationship of psychoanalysis to culture in its widest sense. The extent of her work is reviewed in Bell's introduction, which in itself provides an important framework for thinking about the book as a whole.
Bell points out that, although psychoanalytic knowledge depends for its existence on psychoanalytic practice, it is not coextensive with it and, on this basis, asserts that psychoanalysis itself should thus be seen as a body of knowledge of the mind (author's emphasis) conceptually distinct from its application. In support of this view he draws on the distinction made by Freud (1926) between the scientific structure of the body of knowledge which constitutes psychoanalysis and its application in both clinical and non-clinical contexts. He also stresses the pre-eminence within the Kleinian perspective of the need to struggle to relate to the truth as emphasized by Bion (1962, 1970). In view of the above, he contends - I think successfully - that psychoanalytic knowledge can be properly used in conjunction with the arts only if it is respected as an intrinsic body of knowledge in its own right and not used as a kind of analogy or metaphor. He is also able to assert that this book should not be regarded as being concerned with ‘applied psychoanalysis’, a subject which is sometimes viewed as being more speculative than clinical work. Bell's insistence on the need for such a firm parameter in my view increases the authority and validity of the book as a whole.
The first part, under the heading ‘Art and Literature’, consists of discussions of four, generally acclaimed, pieces of literature.