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The Moscow Lectures on Psychoanalysis arose out of a 1989 meeting between Arnold Rothstein, Sander Abend, and Marat Vartanian, the Director of the National Mental Health Research Center of the (then) Soviet Union. Vartanian responded to this meeting by inviting a group of western analysts to teach psychoanalysis within the institution of Soviet psychiatry; it was the first such invitation in sixty years. Vartanian indicated at the time “that Soviet mental health workers knew very little about psychoanalysis because prior to glasnost and perestroika the idea of the unconscious had been ‘outlawed’” (p. ix). In his preface to The Moscow Lectures, editor Arnold Rothstein points to this striking fact as a reminder of the power of ideas. He also informs us of one of the major purposes of the book, namely, the transmission of the basic concepts of psychoanalysis to an audience with a background in mental health, but with little knowledge of psychoanalysis.
The Moscow Lectures presents the newcomer to psychoanalysis with a brief history and an orientation to the major concepts of the field, unified by a focus on conflict and compromise formation. The more sophisticated reader is treated to a series of thoughtful expositions on a number of topics, including the relationship of psychoanalysis to psychotherapy, the treatment of severely ill people, and a review of the development and application of child analysis. This is an excellent collection of contemporary psychoanalytic lectures, and aimed as it is toward an audience not necessarily experienced in psychoanalysis, it is a needed and especially welcome contribution.
In the first two chapters, Abend provides a clear account of the beginnings and evolution of psychoanalysis. Within the context of charting the developing theory, he explains such key concepts as unconscious mental processes, free association, resistance, childhood sexuality, and psychic reality. He also identifies the volume's contributors as coming from a parti