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Freudian Thought for the Contemporary Clinician is a collection of lectures transcribed in their original form, consisting of eleven chapters. The first ten are dedicated, in close to chronological order, to the development of Freudian psychoanalytic theory and practice. In conclusion, the eleventh chapter provides a brief description of the most influential models of post Freudian psychoanalysis in the English-speaking world.
The author clarifies from the very beginning his intentions and the reasons behind them. For Mendelsohn, Freudian thought has been discarded for a variety of reasons, chief among these being Freud’s “arcane language” and his “outdated cultural mores” (p. xi). Regardless of what Bruno Bettelheim1 might have made of Mendelsohn’s first reason (my guess is he would blame Strachey for this problem), it is nonetheless true that he manages to share Freudian theory in an enjoyable and unaffected fashion, making it accessible in a way that is both rare and delightful. Of special merit is the author’s use of clinical material, weaving in examples from Freud’s cases and his own clinical experience. This does not come across as coldly calculated but rather emerging from an almost freely associative process in the text. The material itself leads Mendelsohn to his reservoir of knowledge and experience. This affords the reader the impression of being the spectator of a sublimatory improvisational phenomenon, not entirely disconnected to the author’s familiarity with music, since he is both analyst and musician. This quality is even more enhanced by Mendelsohn’s interaction in the lectures with his students, who
Bettelheim, B. . Freud and Man’s Soul. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
participate asking questions, leveling critiques, and occasionally making their own interpretations of Freud.
The first three chapters are organized around early Freud from late 1800 to early 1900, focusing briefly on his work with Breuer and to a greater extent on dreams and the topog