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This remarkable book deals with complicated psychoanalytic concepts with a certain clarity that far surpasses most psychoanalytic texts. A great deal of clinical case material is presented in a concise and suspenseful fashion, subtly encouraging the reader to ponder the outcome of the analytic material discussed. This makes for exciting reading.
Dr. Volkan tells what is in the analyst's mind as he or she listens to the analysand and keeps an eye on the analytic process. This is a book on technique that does not focus on any one psychoanalytic school of thought, but examines present day psychoanalytic concepts for review to discard or update them. One can examine the validity of the link between clinical observations, the psychodynamic understanding of them and the technical considerations based on such observations. This is Dr. Volkan's “Field-Work Method” as “seeing is believing.” He puts himself “…behind a metaphorical one way mirror for the reader to see and hear” how he conducted analyses or supervised younger colleagues' work or “…. how I noticed the shadows of ancestors' history in my analysands' internal worlds, or how I paid attention to my analysands' pertinent actions, or how I modified my technique according to an analysand's personality organization.” This book is not about supportive psychotherapeutic techniques but rather the modification of the analysands' internal world. This involves the working through of unconscious fantasies and conflicts.