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The relation of change to tradition is a central concern of psychoanalysis, and Schafer's essays on diverse subjects collected in this volume represent his continuing participation in these debates. He sees change as a matter of transformation and accurately sees himself “as engaged in the study of transformation in theory and practice rather than radical discontinuities” (p. x). Schafer's discussion of the writings of other analysts from Freud on to the present time is guided by the premise that there can be no value-free exploration and exposition of psychoanalytic assumptions, concepts, methods, and apparently purely objective, empirical reports (p. 2).
In his overview of Hartmann's contributions, he defends him from critics who claim that, for Hartmann, adaptation meant “conformity,” “compliance,” or “superficial adjustment” to societal values. These critics neglect Hartmann's fundamental point that adaptation includes “fitting in” as only one among several possibilities. Hartmann's writings on adaptation include making efforts to change one's situation or even leaving a personally unsatisfactory social environment.
Although Schafer extols many of Hartmann's contributions to ego psychology, he mounts a devastating critique of Hartmann's notion of clinical psychoanalysis as a technology. For Schafer, “technology” is a trope with a set of mechanical connotations that, on the face of it, is chilling and points to a serious flaw in Hartmann's argument. In Hartmann's view of psychoanalysis, the analyst is expected to be a detached and thoroughly objective observer and technician, thoroughly impersonal and purely rational. Psychoanalysis is a process of dialogue, and all of its so-called facts are the products of multiple interactions between analysand and analyst. Hartmann incorrectly assumed one could separate facts and values.
Schafer astutely recognizes and discusses how much the organizing ideas of dialogue and intersubjectivity have been moving to the center of psy