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The third volume of this annual, like the earlier two, brings together a valuable collection of psychoanalytic essays which are broad in scope, informative, and generally of very high scholarly quality. There are four theoretical studies, six clinical studies, a paper on the problem of the training analysis, three articles on psychoanalytic history, a tribute to Heinz Kohut, three papers on psychoanalysis as a science, and three essays in applied psychoanalysis. All these contributions deserve commentary, but space permits me to touch briefly on only a few.
Three of the theoretical studies (by Basch, Hyman, and Thomä and Kächele) are pointedly germane to the re-evaluations and critiques of classical metapsychology that have recently become the subject of lively controversy within Freudian circles. Among the clinical studies, I found Krystal's paper on affect tolerance and Terman's article on aggression and narcissistic rage to be especially illuminating and directly helpful in clinical practice. I particularly enjoyed Gedo's tribute to Kohut and Kohut's own two essays on psychoanalysis as a science, in which he brings to focus the central healing and humanizing role of “scientific empathy” in the psychoanalytic enterprise.
While a number of the papers in this volume were specifically written in honor of Richard Sterba, the influence of Kohut's contributions on many of the authors is readily apparent. Taken as a whole, the book demonstrates that the Chicago group continues to flourish as an important center of creative and innovative psychoanalytic scholarship.
Volume 3 confirms my impression that the Annual of Psychoanalysis is a superior periodical that well merits the attention of anyone who wishes to keep abreast of current developments in psychoanalytic thought.