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As one would expect from this author, these two volumes provide a thorough exposition of the psychoanalytic perspective on the psychiatric field, from a mainly North American Ego Psychology viewpoint.
Volume I covers psychic development from infancy to old age; psychiatric conditions by diagnosis are tackled towards the end of Volume I and for most of Volume II; principles of psychodynamic psychotherapy provide the final chapter of Volume II. Organisational/institutional dynamics are not included. Comprehensive reviews of other published work (mainly USA) are included with each topic, alongside the author's well articulated and considered views.
In general the book feels quite condensed, although the style is light and more readable than I had expected. DSM III R categories are used as the diagnostic framework, and this is particularly helpful in the section on psychosis, avoiding the trap of referring to all psychotic manifestations as ‘Schizophrenia’.
The Object relations viewpoint is included in the earlier sections and referred to at times later on. The impression given, however, is that this was for the sake of completeness as this approach is clearly considered to be of minor relevance compared to the ‘classical’ one. I felt this theoretical divergence most acutely in the section on Psychosis, where the sufferer from schizophrenia is seen as lacking object relations, rather than living with acute sensitivity in a world of primitive object relations.
The author makes it explicit at the outset that this is ‘not a textbook on psychodynamic psychiatry’, but is concerned with principles. As a consequence, somewhat more space is given to theory than to clinical material, with the latter mainly used to illustrate conclusions rather than pose questions.
In summary, more of a reference book than for reading straight through, giving a comprehensive overview of current thinking, mainly from a North American viewpoint, on psychiatric conditions.