Psychoanalytic Studies of Change: An Integrative Perspective, by S. E. Gullestad, E. Stänicke, and M. Leuzinger-Bohleber, London, New York,  Taylor & Francis, 2024,  240 pp., $42.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1032651903 Knowing What Psychoanalysts Do and Doing What Psychoanalysts Know, by D. Tuckett, E. Allison, O. Bonard, G. J. Bruns, A. L. Christopoulos, M. Diercks, E. Hinze, M. Linardos, and M. Šebek, New York, London,  Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham Boulder, 2024, pp., $ 60 (paperback), ISBN 978-1538188104 https://doi.org/10.577

The two books that are the subjects of this review have a long history and deal with an important means of evolution for psychoanalysis. In the last decades of the 20^th century, psychoanalysis came under pressure because of a growing number of types of psychotherapy, a growing discussion on key concepts of psychoanalysis, and a growing concern about its results in comparison with CBT and medication. Around the turn of the century, psychoanalytical organizations reacted. In a guest editorial in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Emde and Fonagy reported on the Research Training Program (RTP) that had started in 1995 and that has since continued in one form or the other. Emde and Fonagy conclude: “The extent of its contribution (i.e. the RTP) to an emerging culture of research for our field will become apparent in the years to come. Many of us believe that the vitality of psychoanalysis depends on such a culture” (Emde & Fonagy, 1997, p. 651).

The International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) has organized various research platforms. One of them started in 2006, the yearly Sandler Research Conference. The European Psychoanalytic Federation (EPF) has also organized several Working Parties. They “arose from the recognition that to be recognized as a scientific discipline involved better communication between psychoanalysts about how they understand their work and the clinical observations in which it is grounded” (Levy et al., 2024, p. 2). And, of course, in the same vein, the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society (NPSA) was formed, also with yearly conferences, with their core being the meeting of the neurosciences and psychoanalysis.

Both the IPA and the EPF initiatives have resulted in many books. Look them up in the references, they all contain a lot of information, including the IPA-initiative of Fonagy et al. (2002), Leuzinger-Bohleber & Kächele (2015), Leuzinger-Bohleber et al. (2003), and Leuzinger-Bohleber et al. (2016, 2020, 2022) that