If a struggle with difficult prose, poor organization, bad grammar, and some questionable reasoning is rewarded by a new idea or a well-drawn argument, the gain is worth the effort. Psychoanalysis: The Possible Profession, unfortunately, is long on struggle and regrettably short on reward. This small volume of seven papers and one book review, whose strongest point may well be its brevity, takes its name in part in reaction to Janet Malcolm's study, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession,1 one target of an article by Reuben Fine, discussed below.

In the "Letter From The Editor" that introduces this book (also published as Current Issues in Psychoanalytic Practice, Volume 2,