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A Festschrift for a man like Jacob Arlow puts unusually heavy demands on the reviewer. The breadth and scope of Arlow's interests, if properly represented by the contributors, is alone enough to exclude expert assessment by any one surveyor. It is with these limitations in mind that these selective remarks are offered.
The lengthy book under review consists of 28 essays by distinguished professionals. It is arranged into eight sections, the first of
which deals with the man and his work. The next three deal with unconscious fantasy: its theory, implications for technique, and its applications, each in turn. The sections that follow are concerned with mythology, religion and belief; reality (which is how the editors collectively designate sexuality, identity, and biology); and psychopathology in clinical practice. The final section forms an Epilogue to which J. T. Fraser and Arlow's collaborator Charles Brenner make eloquent contributions (though Brenner, defending drive theory, is silent on the subject of economics). Although each chapter refers and has relevance to Arlow's work and is often informed by it, to all intents and purposes each essay consists of the writer's own reflections on his chosen topic. In the nature of things, a book of this kind does not offer any formal critique of the work of the man it sets out to honor.
The general reader of a compilation like this needs for orientation some kind of guide to Arlow's extensive output. Two complementary essays supply this. The first, by Yale Kramer, provides a bird's eye view of the theoretical and clinical contributions and innovations. The second, by Francis Baudry, deals with the contributions to applied psychoanalysis. These chapters are necessary preliminaries to the essays that follow. I will not itemize them; but they include, to select at random, thoughtful and often fascinating discussions on a wide variety of subjects by Isidor Bernstein, Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, Charles Fisher, Jules Glenn, Burne