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This is the second volume of selected papers to come out of the conference that commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the Chicago Institute. The title of the book refers to the title of the conference, but it seems presumptuous here, since no effort has been made to delineate the vital issues, nor have the subjects been coherently related to each other. These comments are not meant to detract, however from the richness and originality of many of the individual papers.
Part I of the book contains four papers on transference and countertransference. Charles Kligerman provides a fine introduction. Jacob Arlow's paper on transference and interpretation lucidly relates them to conflict and compromise formation within the framework of structural theory. It is puzzling, therefore, that in Part II, "Self Psychology and Its Alternatives," the authors contrast self psychology with Freudian theory by referring only to Freud's prestructural writings. For example, David Terman constructs his view of mainstream analysis via references to the Introductory Lectures and the early case histories. In his paper, "The Analyst's Function in the Psychoanalytic Process," Terman asserts that the analyst, his interpretations, and the process itself serve as functions in the patient's inner experience, creating structure through the selfobject experience with the analyst. The care, concern, and empathy of the analyst become as significant as the interpretive content itself. However, his case example is not convincing. It seems to me that his sensitive, interpretive comments could have been made by a skilled analyst in either camp. We have to take his word for it that he served as a selfobject for the patient.
The assertion that "the mere presence of empathy … has a therapeutic effect" (p. 353) is offered by Heinz Kohut, in his posthumously