You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Freud and Psychoanalysis is the most recent book in an esteemed tradition. Like Freud, Fenichel, Alexander, Nunberg, Waelder, and
Brenner before him, Meissner summarizes the findings and theories of psychoanalysis in a contemporary context while emphasizing significant historical roots. He does so in a comprehensive way, covering and evaluating many important trends and theoretical perspectives. His book is thus an excellent compendium of many classical and modern views.
Meissner traces Freud's thinking step by step from his early work (including the “Project,” “Studies on Hysteria,” and the “Dream Book”) to his late contributions (“Analysis Terminable and Interminable” and “Outline of Psychoanalysis”). He includes shifts from drive emphasis to ego integration, from libido domination to the giving of equal standing to aggression, and from topographical to structural theory. His survey encomipasses the studies of Klein, Winnicott, Fairbairn, Erikson, Kohut, and Kernberg. The author covers Sigmund and Anna Freud's integration of the function of the ego and superego, as well as attempts by Hartmann, Loewenstein, and Kris to establish a general psychology. There are descriptions of the developmental studies of Mahler and a brief critique of Freud's views on female psychology. Indeed, Freud and Psychoanalysis can and does serve as a textbook of psychoanalysis. Quite a task for a relatively short book!
Nevertheless, it displays a number of limitations. The book is so broad and detailed in its coverage that it may overwhelm the reader, especially one without clinical experience. There is relatively little clinical material to illustrate the theories that Meissner describes so well. At times, he is repetitious, particularly when examining concepts from different points of view. The intended audience, according to the book's jacket, includes “therapists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, medical students, collegiate, graduate and divinity students and professors, as well as the