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Roger Kennedy, the author of this diverse collection of papers and chapters, has worn several hats over the more than thirty years of clinical and institutional experience covered in his updated compilation. He has analyzed adults and adolescents in private practice, and has brought a psychoanalytic perspective to the treatment of in-patients, mainly at the Cassell facility in London, where he has worked since 1982. The inpatient population he works with has included both individuals and groups. Additionally, the author has worked in an experimental program to treat entire families as inpatients. He has also testified in court and applied his insights to theatrical productions. The scope of Kennedy's intellect allows him to incorporate the ideas of multiple philosophers, as well as of psychoanalytic thinkers from Europe, South America, and the United States.
The wide scope of this collection of papers and chapters makes it complex to review, and the philosophical bent provided a challenge for this reviewer. The “many voices” of the title refer to the three sections of the book: theoretical voices, clinical ones, and other voices.
Kennedy himself is part of the British Independent tradition of psychoanalysis, which he tells us is difficult to define. It emphasizes the central role of object relations theory, is rooted in classical Freudian theory and technique, and remains open to contributions from multiple theoretical perspectives. The significance of affect states, of transference and countertransference, and of oedipal and preoedipal dynamics are all recognized. The facilitation of self-analytic skills is seen as crucial.