Learning and Education: Psychoanalytic Perspectives. (Emotions and Behavior Monograph 6.): Edited by Kay Field, M.A., Bertram J. Cohler, Ph.D., and Glorye Wool, M.D. Madison, CT: International Universities Press, Inc., 1989. 1016 pp.

There is an inherent paradox in reviewing so comprehensive and far-ranging a volume as this one: to adequately illustrate its broad range of contributions exceeds the constraints of space, while narrowing the focus runs counter to the holistic, integrative intention of the editors. An overview of this ambitious work will follow, in which I shall attempt to avoid sacrificing detail to generality.

The 1982 conference, "The World of Learning: From Motive to Meaning," sponsored by the Teacher Education Program of the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago, served as the impetus for this collection of original contributions by authorities in the fields of education, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, sociology, linguistics, and mental health. It attempts to address the complicated question of how learning occurs, what affects its acquisition, and why some individuals learn with ease and pleasure, while others of adequate intelligence cannot learn, will not learn, or can only acquire knowledge selectively. This book positions itself in the thick of an often controversial field, where partisan factions emphasize