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I can hardly be the first to observe that it's not easy reading Green. Nevertheless, I believe he is one of the most important psychoanalytic writers working today and worth the focused attention that his material requires. One small warning: this book, recently translated into English, arrives lacking two standard reader's aids: There is no index, which means no quick reference for terms, and no chapter title running heads, leaving the reader with no convenient reference as to where he is in the book. I recommend flagging each chapter's title page before delving into the material. And that marks the end of the bad news. Although at times complex, the book is full of timely, scholarly, and provocative ideas, and the majority of it is accessible to anyone with a foundation in psychoanalysis. Green's writing is intellectually bold and continues to “take no prisoners.” For decades, he has adamantly (and often singularly) defended the importance of the drives, with much of his work centering on unconscious processes and the creation of striking metaphors to describe the least accessible mental states. In this material, he maintains those priorities, but seems, at times, almost a kinder, gentler Green.
This book does not present an overarching theory; it is a collection of published papers that identify psychic functions around which both theory and technique are built and honed. His introduction serves as a first chapter, opening inquiry into the meaning of the term “clinical thinking” and why it may be particularly important today. On the one hand, he explains, we can contemplate theory, and on the other, our practice. “Clinical thinking” occurs in the spaces between them, developing links through tertiary processes that connect one to the other, dynamically and reciprocally.
Green's astute comprehension of Freud is put to good use as he traces the history of Freud's changing theories and staunchly defends concepts that appear close to becoming “endangered ideas” through