Advances In Clinical Psychoanalysis. John E. Gedo. New York:  International Universities Press, 1981.  407 pp.

john Gedo's excellent book, Clinical Advances in Psychoanalysis, is both well written and of much merit. I recommend it for its honesty, clarity, humanism, and brave attempt to deal with complex issues. Gedo shares with the reader a wealth of knowledge acquired during 20 years of clinical experience. One can identify with his wonderful successes as well as his failures, learn from his acute clinical and theoretical perceptiveness, and applaud his ability to apply theory in an emotional and meaningful way. He demonstrates this ability through a detailed account of many interesting cases, using an approach which attempts an integration and synthesis of ideas current in psychoanalytic literature and practice.

Freud stated that the foundation stones of psychoanalysis rest on observation alone, and that metatheory is only the copestone. Gedo's cases and his theorizing about them are admirable in their absence of confusing and intimidating abstractions; they focus on a description of the workings of the psychoanalytic method by artfully interweaving the themes concerned with preoedipal, oedipal, later developmental issues, and specific current crises in the lives of his patients. He points out the ways in which these problems repeat themselves under the influence of the repetition compulsion, how they are expressed and experienced in the transference relationship, and how their resolution promotes growth and adjustment. Gedo emphasizes that the heart of psychoanalysis is the reliving of the past in the consulting room, the success of which depends upon the ability of the analyst to facilitate rather than hinder this unique experience. Most of all, Gedo is concerned with expanding traditional technique and current self and object relations theory to help those with more serious pathology than character neurosis. But he is also concerned with the need for flexibility, creativity, and courage in meeting the needs and in understanding all of our patients.

Section I, “The Scope