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Doubt, Conviction and the Analytic Process is an impressive collection of thirteen clinical papers written by Michael Feldman, a training analyst with the BPS and current Chair of The Melanie Klein Trust. The preface by Roy Schafer describes Feldman's self-questioning, or ‘self-supervision’ and an Introduction by Betty Joseph tells the reader how Feldman gets hold of issues which are often likely to ‘de-stabilize’ the practice of psychoanalysis. These arise from the ways in which patient and analyst affect each other during a session. Patients may feel ‘driven’ to communicate in order to affect the analyst as well as to be understood. It is clear that one of the ramifactions of this could be that the analyst finds themselves off balance, resulting in an attempt to find an equilibrium between the doubt, uncertainty and confusion that is the outcome of the patient being affecting.
This is the theme that runs through the papers, all of which are written directly and honestly covering big subjects like ‘The Oedipus Complex’, ‘Projective identification and the analyst's involvement’, ‘Envy and the negative therapeutic reaction’. Other papers focus upon reassurance, the death instinct, parts of the self, compliance and lastly, doubt and conviction. Much of the content of the papers reiterates Kleinian/Freudian theory—this is both helpful to trainees and those who wish to revise. It also clarifies the theoretical basis for Feldman's style of working. The clinical content of the papers focuses upon Feldman's self-supervisory style, where he both values and questions doubt, suspects conviction and remains steadfastly accountable to himself. He writes convincingly about his openness to himself and his patients, always reminding the reader of the pressures of unconscious communication.
Feldman makes it clear that he is always fully aware that the psychoanalytic encounter involves two people and the interaction of their respective internal worlds at both a conscious and unconscio