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Merton Gill is perhaps best known for his insistence that constant interpretation of the transference is the defining characteristic of psychoanalysis. In a long and fascinating intellectual journey, he went from being an avatar of metapsychology, its codifier, in his 1963 monograph, Topography and Systems in Psychoanalytic Theory—describing the theory building of Hartmann and Rapaport—to a radical deconstructionist, who in his 1976 paper, Metapsychology Is Not Psychology, sought to demolish metapsychology. To quote Robert Wallerstein in Changing Conceptions of Psychoanalysis, Gill wished to “return psychoanalytic theorizing to an experience-near focus on just its special or clinical theory—as opposed to the to-be-excised general or metapsychological theory” (p. 17). The transition from being a psychoanalytic St. Augustine to becoming a Martin Luther in one lifetime is quite an achievement, especially since, in each phase of his intellectual life, Gill received homage from the general psychoanalytic community. As Wallerstein suggests:
It has been Merton Gill's fate to be an acknowledged leader in (American) psychoanalysis almost from the beginning of his career. An uncommon percentage of his writings have been almost instantly—and justly—hailed for their critical influence at particular points in the history of analysis in America. [p. 16]
The book under review is, in essence, a well-deserved, extended eulogy to Gill's remarkable contributions. His absence of cant