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Joyce Slochower's most recent book, Psychoanalysis and the Unspoken, is a collection of some of her most important articles, as well as new essays representing her major contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis idealizes the capacity of the analysand to speak freely and to free associate. With the idealization of free association often comes the assumption of the silent analyst. The analyst remains quiet, carefully discerning what to say and when. In her book, Slochower brings together a collection of thought-provoking, engaging, and seminal essays addressing what is not being talked about, what analysts overlook, ignore, or deny inside and outside the consultation room.
Slochower's early theoretical work centered around bringing a contemporary framework to bear on the Winnicottian notion of the holding environment (Slochower, 2014). Her work explores the holding metaphor as creating emotionally protective space when interpretations or intersubjective engagement cannot be tolerated by the patient.
In this book, Slochower brings together reworkings of some of her earlier contributions as well as later articles about different topics, all articulating her exploration of psychoanalytic ideals and their limitations. She writes,
I aim to identify and query our field's clinical and theoretical underbellies and open a reflective space within which to name and explore unspoken or under-spoken aspects of our thinking and personhood as they shape, develop, and limit our clinical work. (Slochower, 2024, p. xyiii)
Drawing upon decades of clinical experience and knowledge, she discusses the evolution of her theory and her critique of the psychoanalytic field. With rare clarity and honesty, she takes on the task of criticizing Winnicottian, relational psychoanalytic theory and the psychoanalytic field from the inside out. This review may itself echo the mosaic of ideas that captures both the past and present of Slochower's thinking, while also pointing toward the