You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The present volume is a hardcover edition of a previous supplement to the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association based on a series of panels presented at meetings of the American on the role of the concept of structure in current psychoanalytic theory and practice. The result can be taken as a more or less authoritative expression of current thinking about structure in orthodox analytic circles. As such, the volume is informative and in many regards thought provoking. But if readers are looking for a coherent, consistent, and consensually endorsed presentation of the idea of structure, or for a uniform conceptualization of the nature of psychic structure and its role in psychoanalytic praxis, they will have to look elsewhere. The volume is more remarkable for its diversity and often contradictory views on the nature of structure and the relevance of structure to clinical work in the analytic setting.
One would expect the concept of psychic structure to be a basic element of psychoanalytic theory to which all quasi-orthodox analysts would nod assent. But it seems that espousing a structural concept is quite a different matter from determining what is meant by structure and how it is to be interpreted in its divergent theoretical contexts. If the Freudian version of the structural theory—in the form of the tripartite model—seemed clear enough for earlier analytic thinkers, that claim can no longer be sustained. There is no consensus in this collection of essays on that issue. One can note as well a certain dissatisfaction with the traditional structural ideas, possibly linked to outmoded drive concepts as noted by Schafer. The result seems to be an allergic withdrawal from theory, or at least an attempt to get along with as little theory as needed to conduct analyses. One expression of this tendency is Weinshel's