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Freedom to Choose: Two Systems of Self-Regulation represents the culmination and distillation of fifty years of clinical work and research by two prominent child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalysts. In clear and compelling language, Jack and Kerry Kelly Novick describe their model of two systems utilized by individuals for self-regulation and conflict resolution. The closed-system is based on the hostile, magical power to control others and is static and self-perpetuating, whereas the open-system is attuned to reality, receptive to new experience, and enables competence. Their two systems model attempts to explain the tenacious persistence of a patient’s self-defeating and sadomasochistic functioning while also allowing for creative solutions to conflict.
The book is divided into two sections. In the first section, the authors review developmental phases from pregnancy through old age. They identify a specific challenge for each phase and describe how that challenge may be met with either open-system or closed-system responses. In the second part of the book, the authors demonstrate how their model informs clinical decision-making and technique. They suggest that by attending to both types of responses, the analyst can better position him or herself to analyze closed-system defensive functioning while also allowing for the emergence of more open-system adaptive functioning.
At first glance, the book appears overly simplistic and schematic. The format resembles that of an introductory handbook complete with straightforward chapter headings, italicized sidebars highlighting the main points, and succinct chapter summaries. This format both enhances the accessibility of the material and belies the complexity of the Novicks’ thinking. The authors developed their ideas over decades studying individuals with varying
degrees of destructive and self-destructive sadomasochistic behavior. I would have liked to have seen a more extensive explication of the theoretical and re