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This book is representative of a genre of publication that is appearing with increasing frequency in psychiatric bookstores. It is a compendium of essays which has been generated neither by the need to harvest an abundance of new scientific discoveries nor by an outpouring of creative energy by its contributors, but by the decision of a publisher that such a product is timely for the market. We learn in the "acknowledgments" that the publisher approached Volkan who then proceeded to solicit contributions from "colleagues I know well and whose work I admire." The Aronson/Volkan product does appear to this reviewer to address admirably the market defined by Volkan: "This volume can be read as a reference book by mental health professionals interested in a serious study of depression and related states and their treatment, and who wish to prepare themselves for closer cooperation between biology and psychiatry" (p. 14). Readers who fit this description would do well to invest in the volume. However, the psychoanalytic reader will find the essays of uneven interest and quality, and would do well to read selectively from the library copy.
Depressive States is a collection of twenty essays organized in five parts. Part I consists of three essays by D. Wilfred Abse and Gordon Kirschner on "Basic Concepts." Abse in his two chapters gives an excellent review and synthesis of the literature on depression, with an emphasis on the role of oral sadism. In his second chapter, "The Depressive Character," he makes a good case for the psychoanalytic treatment of depression: only a psychoanalytic treatment can provide a working-through process of sufficient intensity and duration to accomplish the "mourning" work necessary for relinquishment of the narcissistic omnipotence embedded in the depressive character structure. Kirschner provides an interesting definition of the creative process, and he examines how it is