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Edited by Robert A. Hinde. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1972. 443 pp.
SYMBOLIC IMAGES. STUDIES IN THE ART OF THE RENAISSANCE. By E. H. Gombrich. New York: Phaidon Publishers, Inc., 1972. 247 pp.
It is not possible in a review to do more than indicate the rich content of these two books and to consider their relation to psychoanalysis. The central subject holds a special interest for psychoanalysts and it is disappointing that there is no chapter by an analyst in the Hinde volume. The reviewer might be tempted to supply the missing chapter. It must suffice, however, to note that since Freud's earliest writings, psychoanalysts have recognized and have been alerted to the role of nonverbal communication in both clinical work and theory. In a discussion of symptomatic acts in the Dora case, published in 1905, Freud said: 'He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore. And thus the task of making conscious the most hidden recesses of the mind is … quite possible to accomplish.'1