The Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis. Vol. I: By Ralph R. Greenson. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1967. 452 pp.

This volume, which is to be followed by a second dealing with the technical challenges of an analysis in chronological order, concentrates on three central psychoanalytic areas—resistance, transference, and the psychoanalytic situation. After a brief chapter surveying 'basic concepts', about which more will be said below, Greenson offers an impressive array of detailed observations from his extensive experience as analyst and teacher. These are presented in a series of concise clinical vignettes, evidencing a consistent style of approach and intervention. In addition, a clear demonstration of the productive value of the confrontations and interpretations made in each clinical situation is regularly provided. No analyst will fail to be reminded of his own struggles with the counterparts of these varied analytic crises in his own practice, and none will fail to envy Greenson his virtuoso perceptiveness and his brand of dramatic articulateness in dealing with each episode. As a consequence of this uniquely personal approach, the book fulfils one of its declared functions, serving as a force designed to oppose psychoanalytic 'orthodoxy or sectarianism'. These trends, the author feels, have been encouraged by the analyst's traditional silence not only concerning the 'ambiguities, divergencies, and deviations' of analytic practice, but also the innovations and individually polished and favored nuances of technique. Literally hundreds of clinical allusions, combined with dozens of more extensive references to particularly interesting protocols, offer a grand tour of the Greenson style, and a great variety of technical precepts and ways of viewing clinical phenomena are strikingly illustrated.

In the chapter on the basic concepts of psychoanalysis only an extremely condensed presentation of fundamentals is offered, interwoven with a historical review of the changes in psychoanalytic therapy since the days of hypnosis. Greenson concludes his discussion by stating that