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Reasons for reviewing a book are not usually given in this journal. Readers generally know by the title and by virtue of the exposition how a work relates to their scholarly and professional interests. The title of Theodore Geiger's latest book, The Fortunes of the West,* does not, however, suggest that it is a volume which warrants the attention of psychoanalysts, and none of its chapters is directly concerned with topics which characterize
the literature of psychoanalysis. So I present the following justification.
We know that historical and sociocultural contexts influence how our art is understood and what in fact is practiced as “psychoanalysis.” But in spite of the different situations in Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century, Berlin in the 1920's, and London and New York in the 1930's, psychoanalysis developed everywhere within a particular version and vision of Western civilization-the liberal-democratic order of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The waters of that civilization bathed all practical and theoretical endeavors within its ambience. Psychoanalysts as practioners, as theorists, and even as members of professional organizations have assumed, but in general have not investigated, the axial structures of that order by which and into which psychoanalysis was born. As our civilization continues to be transformed from a liberaldemocratic to a technocratic type, the art, theory, and institutions of psychoanalysis are being subjected to profound economic, social, and cultural stresses. While most psychoanalysts have experienced these stresses, few have recognized the nature of the changes in civilization which have led to these stresses. I recommend The Fortunes of the West to readers of this Review because careful study of Chapters 2 and 7 can radically advance one's understanding of the origin and nature