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The title of this volume promises both more and less than it delivers. In spite of the important role that discussion of aggression plays in it, it is really more of an encyclopedic collection of theoretical material and clinical observations in the long line of the author's publications. It is remarkably rich in the area of observations and formulations, which makes it a difficult volume to read straight through. Rather, it is rewarding with the kind of organized thinking into which one can dip at will from the variety of chapter headings. Perhaps the most encompassing cement of the volume involves a consideration of severe personality disorders, with Kern- berg's emphasis on his understanding of object relations. Without leaving classical Freudian theory behind, he adds an enrichment of the works of many authors, including many of the British school of object relations theorists.
In the opening section, Kernberg stresses the fundamental role of affects in the organization of drives. In an area which has been deficient in psychoanalytic theory, he makes an impressive case for affect states as the essential bridge between the biological givens of the instincts and the psychic drive states. Affects are “biologically given, developmentally activated psychophysiological patterns” (p. 5) which become organized to constitute aggressive and libidinal drives. Affects are seen as comprising cognitive appraisal, subjective experience, and a muscular and neurovegetative discharge. The affects of sexual excitement and rage are the central organizers of libido and aggression. Affects always have an object relations aspect: they express a relation between an aspect of the patient's self and an aspect of one or another of her or his object representations. Ultimately, it is internalized object relations and their corresponding affective investment that constitute the substructure of the ego, the id, and the superego.
After this introductory material, the psychopathology of hatred i