The Transference in Psychotherapy. Clinical Management: Edited by Evelyne Albrecht Schwaber, M.D. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1985. 181 pp.

This book presents the views of six eminent and often differing psychoanalytic thinkers on the transference in psychotherapy. The

discussions are highly stimulating and informative. They also illuminate issues that extend far beyond what is suggested by the title.

The volume in large part contains the proceedings of a two-day workshop, with the same title, sponsored by the American Psychoanalytic Association, in New York City in 1981. The panelists were Jacob A. Arlow, Eleanor Galenson, Merton Gill, Robert Michaels, Paul Ornstein, and Arthur Valenstein, with Evelyne Schwaber serving as moderator. The format consisted of formal presentations, in which each of the panelists delineated his or her views of transference, followed by a dialogue among the panelists and responses to questions from the floor. Additionally, for the purposes of this book, the moderator/editor has formulated a series of eight questions regarding theoretical and clinical aspects of the transference, to which she has asked each panelist to respond.

For this reader, the most valuable sections are the formal presentations of the panelists. Several use clinical case material as a springboard for their discussions. The choice of panelists insured the inclusion of widely divergent points of view and research interests.

Michels, in a dispassionate, encompassing presentation, lucidly defines the concept of transference and delineates the issues involved. Valenstein discusses, from a developmental point of view, the preoedipal transferences characteristic of patients with more primitive pathology. In his view, these reproduce primitive, preverbal affective states rather than discretely laid down memories. He argues that for such patients interpretation and insight are relatively less effective therapeutic agents than are the experiential, enactive interchanges of the therapeutic situation. Ornstein presents self psychology's conceptualization of the selfobject transference that posits a primary