The Language of Psychoanalysis. J. La Planche and J. B. Pontalis. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. New York:  W. W. Norton, 1973.  xv + 510 pp.

The original edition of this book was published in French under the title Vocabulaire de la psychoanalyse. Thus from the start we are confronted with a shortcoming in this otherwise excellent book. It is not a vocabulary of psychoanalysis, as the title alleges, but is rather a praiseworthy encyclopedia of Sigmund Freud's important concepts.

While this work includes much that has been conceived of in the field, it nevertheless omits a large amount. The authors state that they have taken Freud's pioneering work as their basic frame of reference. Actually for the most part they have taken it as their only frame of reference. This is in contrast to a book like the Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis, edited by Ludwig Eidelberg, which encompasses more psychoanalytic names, terms, and concepts, though perhaps without the more thoughtful elegance of The Language of Psychoanalysis.

In alphabetical sequence this volume provides us with a compilation of the important terms used by Freud in his development of psychoanalysis. For each term, it first offers us a succinct definition, then a