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I must report that I spent several years on a committee with Antonino (Nino) Ferro and never realized that we had distinct disagreements about psychoanalytic issues. Despite these disagreements (some of which I will later detail), I find his recent book, The New Analyst's Guide to the Galaxy: Questions About Contemporary Psychoanalysis , wonderfully engaging and thought provoking. The format is an interesting one that probably should be repeated by other analysts. The young analyst, Luca Nicoli, formulates the questions that he believes would be of interest to many young analysts. Ferro answers the questions in a surprisingly candid and open way so that the reader will have little doubt as to how he feels and thinks about various clinical issues. The questions largely center on clinical subjects; questions move from topics like frequency, the use of the couch, how to conceive of the analytic situation, and whether past theories have any relevance at all in today's analytic world. Most importantly, he relates his version of field theory and the relationship of his version of field theory to Bion's theoretical concepts.
Interestingly, Ferro and Nicoli are well paired because in the introduction Nicoli says “in a whisper” that he has never read Freud's Interpretation of Dreams cover to cover. What exactly he means by this is not entirely clear; I assume we will never know how close he was to the final cover. He also mentions that he considers Freud's early psychoneurological works little more than historical documents. He acknowledges this may be unfair and mentions that several colleagues have made this point to him. I would suggest that he read Pribram and Gill's (1976) book on the Project so that he will not have to rely on comments from his colleagues. Pribram was one of the outstanding neurophysiologists of his era and regards the project as an important prelude to modern information models. Meanwhile, Antonino Ferro suggests that we not read Freud at all because F