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It seems appropriate that this book's somewhat ambitious title is once again a paraphrase of one of Freud's (in)famous dictums; its author, John Munder Ross, tends to think in psychoanalytic drive language and maintains a predominantly intrapsychic focus. Yet the author may feel surprised and even misunderstood to hear himself labeled a traditionalist since he poses a major challenge to the
central psychoanalytic concept of the Oedipus complex. I think the problem is that this book is a compilation of the author's essays dating from 1977 to the present, and his views have naturally moved toward a more postmodern perspective. By the time we get to his epilogue, “A Modest Conclusion,” presumably written most recently and the only piece, besides the introduction, written expressly for this book, Ross has come to doubt many concepts that shape the body of other chapters. He has come to question, for example, the sharp dichotomy of the two genders, with their supposed different characteristics; he wonders about the Eriksonian stages of adult development; and he confesses honestly that he has become “more of a historical, cultural, and developmental relativist” (p. 205) than he would ever have expected. Such a change of perspective, while admirable, raises the issue of obsolescence in psychological writings. It challenges the appropriateness of republishing articles that were written as long ago as 18 years unless they are of lasting historical or philosophical interest.
A compilation of an author's writings also involves the danger of repetition when related themes are discussed, and this is regrettably the case for this book. We find many similar themes and ideas in the three chapters on fatherhood written between 1977 and 1984. Central to the book is Ross's view of a modified Oedipus complex, which takes up three chapters written between 1982 and 1986, and readers would have greatly profited from a condensation of the author's ideas.
Although Freud and Ross agree on th