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In this second Symposium devoted to a landmark book by an outstanding psychoanalytic theorist the editors of The Psychoanalytic Review have chosen George S. Klein's posthumously published Psychoanalytic Theory: An Exploration of Essentials. This is a simple, straightforward title for a volume so rewarding, complex, fertile, and questioning that two of our contributors were moved to write full length papers rather than general commentary. This is easily understandable, for Klein asked such searching and provocative questions over a wide spectrum of psychoanalytic psychology that he requires lengthy answers. Over thirty years ago in one of his earliest papers he wondered where was the perceiver in perceptual theory in a discussion of the “New Look” in perception. More recently in the work under consideration he asked: “Is psychoanalysis relevant?” and raised his now well-known challenge to metapsychology: “Two theories or one?” Klein clearly felt that Freud had created two theories: one metapsychological, the other clinical; one neuro-psychological or mechanistic, and the other one of meaning and, therefore, “psychological.”
George Klein, however, did far more in his short life of 53 years. He was one of the founders and the first editor of Psychological Issues, a monograph series which recently dedicated a special issue on metapsychology to his memory. Following in the footsteps of his mentor and friend, David Rapaport, he taught, treated, experimented, inspired, and gave freely of himself to others. Like Rapaport he was one of the rare men for all seasons in psychoanalytic psychology. The subjects of his interests attest to this: need regulation, subliminal activation, hearing one's own voice, cognitive controls, Freud's sexual theories, developmental incompatabilities, metapsychology, and much more.