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It is a singular privilege to have comments from highly regarded colleagues on one of my major works. That their comments, even when critical, are made in a tone of respect for the work is most gratifying. I want to thank them for the time, energy, and thought they gave to preparing their commentaries.
Satire surely allows for the mixing of metaphors. Let me respond in counterpoint to Gedo's Black Bile with still another humor, i.e., seriously but with a sense of humor. I find Gedo's despair distressing. I regret that he was stunned by my omitting from my book any reference to the writings and propositions put forward in recent years by innovators within psychoanalysis. It is not my intention to slight those he mentioned. It is simply that I find the structural model and instinctual drive theory of superb explanatory value. This does not mean that I am not aware that others object to these models. I too have objections. But they are not of the magnitude as those of Gedo, Klein, Gill and Holzman, Rosenblatt and Thickstun, Peterfreund, and others he mentions. I never considered myself a conservative; perhaps, though time makes conservatives of us all.
I would not want Gedo to assume that I am complacent about or even satisfied with the state of our science or that I believe it virtuous