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The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago enjoys the distinction of being one of the few psychoanalytic organizations which as a group has consistently undertaken research projects in the field of psychoanalysis. The Proceedings of the Third Psychotherapy Council is a report of meetings held in Chicago on October 18th and 19th, 1946, and may be divided into two parts. The first consists of an introduction by Dr. Franz Alexander in which he outlines the departures from classical freudian psychoanalytic technique used in the treatment of many forms of neurotic illness at the Chicago Institute, followed by a description of the treatment of two cases illustrating the method. The second part is a symposium on the psychiatric outpatient clinic of the future.
The essence of Dr. Alexander's plea for greater flexibility in psychoanalytic procedure is that as physicians we should shift emphasis from scientific zeal in uncovering infantile memories and regressions to aiding the patient in the resolution of personal conflicts and problems by the utilization of the physician's psychoanalytic knowledge and experience. Whether this can be done effectively and perhaps permanently without investigation of the patient's reactions at preoedipal and Oedipal levels has not been established, but the proof, as this reviewer has previously pointed out, that the very deepest and most prolonged analyses have resulted favorably in enduring personality changes and complete loss of symptoms, is also lacking in psychoanalytic literature.
Dr. Alexander's case of peptic ulcer with a personality disorder demonstrated great changes through the use of the modified method. The treatment consisted of thirty-seven interviews at irregular intervals, sometimes more than a week elapsing between them, with dream interpretation and discussion of the patient's problems in the light of past history, etc. The patient, a young man, had been afflicted with a peptic ulcer for five years and although