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This is a compendium of papers written by Bellak over a twenty-year period. Spence has grouped them into five sections, provided short section introductions, and preceded each paper by a summary. The sections are entitled “Some Basic Clinical Concepts,” “Research in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy,” “Some Applications of Clinical Psychoanalysis,” “Studies of Schizophrenia,” and “Psychoanalysis and Creativity.”
On Freud's foundation Bellak undertakes to build an integrated theory of personality as neither a “rebel” nor an “orthodox Freudian,” in his words, but rather as a scientist. He begins by examining key Freudian terminology for logical consistency, clarity of meaning, and empirical verification. He restates Freud's hypotheses and attempts to formulate them into a general theory of personality, updated by his own and others’ empirical findings. In this way he attempts to predict and control psychological events and thus add to the accuracy, validity, and reliability of the knowledge base. In the first section he defines the basic concepts of psychoanalysis operationally to eliminate vagueness and obscurity and to prepare them for experimental verification.