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No subject of inquiry could be more central to the psychoanalytic enterprise than investigation of the nature of interpretation. Rubovits-Seitz, who distinguishes between the methodology and the technique of interpretation, emphasizes that his book focuses on the construal of meaning as distinct from issues relating to the communication of interpretations to patients. The author, whose research on the problem of achieving consensus goes back to the early 60s, now offers us the fruit of several decades of engagement with his overall subject. It takes the form of a monumental study of the capacities and limitations of the interpretive process, one that cites (by rough estimate) over 1500 publications by somewhere over 1000 commentators. This staggering number and diversity of sources has been presented with judicious selectivity, great clarity, scrupulous attention to detail, and a balanced consideration of all points of view. Best of all, Rubovits-Seitz never allows his deep commitment to psychoanalysis to compromise the integrity of his dedication to the perspectives of science.
After stating at the outset his conviction that “the interpretive process is first and foremost a form of inquiry” (p. xi), one utilized by all branches of science, Rubovits-Seitz shows in Chapter 1 that Freud's own commitments to the science of his day led him to take a positivistic stance and to exaggerate the empirical dimensions of clinical experience while at the same time he “found it necessary to develop and use nonpositivist interpretive methods, because without such methods he could neither discover nor understand latent contents in his patients' communications” (p. 3). But by neglecting to describe his interpretive methods systematically, and “by minimizing the role and uncertainties of interpretive methods in clinical practice, Freud set a problematic precedent for psychoanalysis and dynamic psychotherapy which continues to