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These twenty-three papers—all but one published previously—span the years 1936 to 1967. The Introduction refers to Dr. Weigert's psychoanalytic training in Berlin in the late 1920's. (The Education Committee, by the way, included Drs. Alexander, Eitingon, Horney, Müller-Braunschweig, Rado, Sachs, and Simmel, and other teachers included Bernfeld and Fenichel.) By 1929 she was treating psychotic patients as Simmel's associate in the famous psychoanalytic hospital at Tegelsee. Migrating to the United States in the 1930's, she was greatly influenced by Harry Stack Sullivan and within a few years became a leader in the 'Washington-Baltimore Group' that included Louis Hill, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, William V. Silverberg, Clara Thompson, and Marjorie Jarvis among its pioneers. It is clear from her references that no point of view in psychoanalytic thinking has escaped Dr. Weigert's attention; and it is apparent too that she has been profoundly influenced by modern European philosophy, especially existentialism.
Part I of the book, entitled Facing the Human Condition, opens with The Psychoanalytic View of Human Personality, but after that it is heavily infused with philosophy and even mysticism revealing, nevertheless, great compassion for the plight of modern man. Part II, Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology, is on more familiar ground, with important contributions to the subjects of narcissism, identity, schizophrenia, and the affective psychoses. Part III, Theoretical and Technical Problems in Psychoanalysis, includes papers on dissent in the early years of psychoanalysis, flexibility of technique, the use of countertransference in therapy, and special problems of termination. Part IV, Ethology, Mythology, and Existential Philosophy, is explained by its title.
All psychoanalysts can learn from this book, I think; but many will disagree with large sections of it. Without attack or polemics, Dr. Weigert questions nearly every psychoanalytic term and concept. In a qui