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This important book's impact is lessened by unnecessary flaws. It undertakes such an important task so well that I don't want to scare readers off by dwelling on its weak points, but feel obligated to discuss them. So, don't expect a superlative job, but don't miss this book. If you are hoping to see evidence that psychoanalysis is becoming a science, you'll want to read it. If you are one of those critics who claims that psychoanalysts can never agree on the interpretation of such matters as real people's unconscious conflicts, or a believer in the hermeneutic approach who feels that clinical judgments about important matters in patients' lives must be bent out of recognizable shape by the demands of scientific method, you must read it!
First, the good news. Shevrin, long known as an outstanding contributor to experimental research in psychoanalysis, has found a fine neurophysiological collaborator, Williams, who has devised a sophisticated, original method of simultaneously measuring several aspects of the brain's momentary response to events. Unfortunately, it did not produce as striking results in the research reported here as a simpler method Shevrin and other collaborators had already used, but this was a pioneering investigation. The new method may come into its own with more use. The team undertook nothing less than to find objective electrophysiological measures