You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This book is the latest in a line of recent works by Roy Schafer, advancing his “action language” alternative to metapsychology. He commands attention for
several reasons. For one thing, it is intriguing when someone of Schafer's reputation, having been a leading contributor to the development of metapsychology, reverses himself and urges its total elimination. For another, metapsychology is in great need of revision since it is quite cumbersome, redundant, and only loosely systematic. Furthermore, Schafer's venture has an immediate appeal; it appears to simplify our labors, get us back to essentials, and to lead us to speak plainly and directly. These are all commendable goals. Would that Schafer's remedy justify all this hoopla! Unfortunately, I believe his effort is worthy bu questionable. Action language cannot replace the older metapsychology. It is too reductionistic, does not have the predictive utility of metapsychology, and leads to impoverishment of metaphor. In my view the abandonment of entity, energy and metaphor fatally flaws his system.
What he has accomplished is to call our attention to the need to improve metapsychology. This is a worthy purpose, and others are working in this area. His highlighting the dangers of over-blown metaphors, of getting lost in over-abstraction, is a real service. Especially noteworthy is Schafer's interest in the philosophy of science in psychoanalysis, a regrettably all too rare emphasis among analysts.
Having said this about his recent interest in action language, what can be said specifically about this latest book itself? it is written by Schafer as a sequel to his A New Language for Psychoanalysis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), and as a response to some of his critics. To give the flavor of his retort, I have paraphrased three instances of his argument as follows: (1) Analysts can continue if they wish to give interpretations in the language of physical metaphor provided they account for it to themselves