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.
The issue of how psychoanalysis trains its next generation is as old as psychoanalysis itself. This concerns questions both of psychoanalytic training
and of the relationship between psychoanalysis and the university, which has always been tense and controversial. Many psychoanalysts remain convinced that it was a wise decision on Freud’s part to locate psychoanalysis as an organization in its own right—outside the university—thereby guaranteeing its independence as a science of the unconscious and avoiding a rash subordination to an understanding of science alien to psychoanalysis. For this reason, too, the field continues to hold a great deal of interest for comparative cultural and literary scholars, critical social and educational scientists, artists, and—more recently—neuroscientists.1 Yet surprisingly, among psychoanalyst members of the International Psychoanalytical Association who work at university departments worldwide, most are professors in medicine or academic psychology.
This is also true for Siri Erika Gullestad and Björn Killingmo, authors of the book under review here, The Theory and Practice of Psychoanalytic Therapy: Listening for the Subtext. Both taught for decades in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oslo. But what distinguishes them is that, on the one hand, they secured access for the next generation of psychoanalysts through their respected academic work at the university. On the other hand, they extended themselves in an equally formative and responsible way to improve psychoanalytic training in Norway. They therefore belong to that select group of psychoanalysts worldwide who have helped shape the balancing act between the academic and the psychoanalytic community in a productive and creative way. This is reflected in The Theory and Practice of Psychoanalytic Therapy, which is excellently suited for teaching at universities as well as in psychoanalytic institutes. It combines the knowledge of both worlds in a uni