New Perspectives in Psychoanalysis; Contributions to Karen Horney's Holistic Approach: Edited by Harold Kelman. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1965. 249 pp.

This book is a companion volume to Advances in Psychoanalysis which dealt almost entirely with theory. It is a collection of papers by Horney and ten of her colleagues who emphasize their clinical approach, quite properly reflecting Horney's theoretical formulations which reject the libido theory, castration anxiety, the Oedipal conflict, penis envy, and put less emphasis on unraveling the past, and more emphasis on the future via a cultural and interpersonal approach. The authors in this volume have ventured into this area to illustrate something of how Horney taught therapy. Some of the papers are quite brief, and since we recognize how difficult it is to teach therapy, to convey and handle the subtle determinants in clinical approach, one can anticipate that the presentations might have a quality of oversimplification, and this is true for this collection.

The best of the papers are interesting common-sense illustrations of how to understand neurotic patients and, hopefully, to influence them to change their ways. Outstanding is Horney's The Value of Vindictiveness, which she summarizes aptly as 'an exquisitely compulsive phenomenon'. In her characteristically vivid, lucid style, she describes the neurotic character trait of retaliation, with suggestions as to its component sources and functions. She also calls attention to the overuse and application of the term 'sadism' which indeed has all but eliminated 'vindictiveness', 'meanness', 'tyranny', 'humiliation', and 'exploitation' from the vocabulary of residents, social workers, and many psychiatrists. Unfortunately she goes too far. Although conceding some sexual element might