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Recent years have measured a spate of volumes of previously published papers bound together on the ground of subject matter, time of publication, or authorship. However valid this type of publication may be, many of us have come to look upon such volumes, as well as the additional groupings of Freud's writings between new
covers, as luxury items. A similar criticism might be leveled against the volume under review, embodying representative publications of the staff of the Austen Riggs Center; however, the justification for its publication, as given in the Introduction—to bring together exploratory studies of 'certain frontier areas … of dynamic psychiatry, clinical psychology and psychoanalysis'—is warranted by the nature and quality of the papers presented.
As a kind of foundation, Section I presents Dr. Knight's well-known and distinguished Presidential Address of December 7, 1952, to The American Psychoanalytic Association.
Section II, Clinical (psychiatric studies), begins with Margaret Brenman's paper On Teasing and Being Teased: And the Problem of 'Moral Masochism'. This competent study of an intricate problem shows that the application of ego psychology may help to break down various complex psychologic functions into their components. Other papers deal with problems of ego states and states of consciousness in general, and with psychoanalytic psychotherapy in general. Four are by Knight, two on 'borderline' states and their management, two on the present status of psychotherapy and its techniques. The role of the ego is emphasized in these and in the next paper by Merton M. Gill, Ego Psychology and Psychotherapy. Two case reports of more than usual interest are included: Aaron T. Beck writes on outpatient therapy of a chronic schizophrenic; Allen B. Wheelis reports Flight from Insight. Wheelis's exceptionally frank revelation of probable technical errors in treatment makes this paper of especial interest. The clinical section closes with Erik H. E