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 five authors of these nine Moscow Lectures on Psychoanalysis have produced a clear and concise survey of psychoanalysis for Russian psychiatrists, newly free of the blinders of Communism. They trace the historical development of “the more traditional” (p. 42) post-Freudian viewpoint, but with a decidedly contemporary slant. This is an up-to-date introduction for any student, with one caveat: since the authors believe that, compared with “traditional” psychoanalysts, others can “in some cases at least barely be recognized as belonging to the same family” (p. 42), they scarcely mention such family branches as object relations theory and self psychology. Sander M. Abend, one of the contributors, explains that exposure to those who “call themselves psychoanalysts” but “who do very different things…is confusing for the public, and for students of human psychology” (p. 42).
The first two chapters, by Abend, present the chronology of Freud's clinical discoveries and of his successive theoretical models. In one crucial area, Freud's shift from the topographic to the structural theory, a further clarification would have helped novices: to spell out that the model “conscious versus unconscious” had to be abandoned because it excluded important conflicts going on within the unconscious (id versus unconscious guilt, for example). Nevertheless, in all other respects Abend has summarized judiciously. And, extending the chronology to Freud's immediate legacy, the works of Anna Freud and of Heinz Hartmann, he describes the development of ego psychology and the resulting shift in technique from the analysis of drives toward the analysis of resistance. Bringing the story up to date, there is even a brief discussion of combining psychoanalytic treatment with the use of medication.