Holland's Guide to Psychoanalytic Psychology and Literature-and-Psychology by Norman N. Holland New York:  Oxford University Press, 1990,  vi + 143 pp., $10.95

The charm of this short, densely-packed guide is that it is both informative and personal. It is a book intended for all graduate students interested in literature and psychology as well as for more advanced readers and researchers. It is chock-full of practical, bibliographical information combined with highly idiosyncratic

opinions and directions. Norman Holland intrudes his witty, intelligent, and quizzical presence throughout the book. The substantial Epilogue, for example, is a chapter we don't expect to find in a book of this sort, and in it Holland gives six navigational markers, or six fundamental hypotheses in psychoanalysis, that he has personally found true and useful. In outline form they are: “free association, unconscious dimensions to our language, the image-clusters of childhood stages, a theme-and-variations identity, feedback, potential space” (pp. 72-73). This is all imaginative, heady stuff, more like what we would find in a personal essay than in a bibliographical guide.

Let me give some brief idea of what is in Holland's Guide (not to be confused with the travel book, A Guide to Holland). It begins with “A Guide to the Guide,” which explains the purpose of the book and gives a preview of some of its conclusions. It is designed “for using psychology, particularly psychoanalytic psychology, to answer questions about literature and the arts” (p. 7). The second chapter has a brief topical outline that is keyed to specific references in the third chapter. “Literature-and-Psychology,” the fourth chapter, is central to the book because it develops concepts of the three phases of psychoanalysis that Holland postulates. These concepts are expressed in a concentrated, outline form with abundant references. The chapter includes a section on archetypal Jungian criticism written by Paul Kugler. The stimulating and provocative Epilogue constitutes Chapter 5.

A very valuable chapter follows on “Research Aids,” prepared with the help of William McPheron of Sta