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Jeffrey Masson, whose The Assault on Truth brought him to national prominence, has finished his last dialogue - verging on a diatribe with official psychoanalysis. In this book he remembers, with much anger, his whirlwind experiences from being a professor of Sanskrit in Toronto, Canada to his training at the Toronto Psychoanalytic, to his personal friendships with Kurt Eissler and Anna Freud. In this abbreviated autobiography, from 1970 to 1980, we are witness to some of the most negative aspects of official psychoanalysis; we are not, however, made aware of any of its positive aspects. Some of Dr. Masson's observations are unassailable; his conclusions, when not suffering from serious flaws in logic, are consistently self-justifying and naive, if not outright ignorant.
Dr. Masson is quite right, I believe, in pointing out the antianalytic practice, operative in many of the International Psychoanalytical Association (I.P.A.) approved institutes, of having the personal analyst report back to the institute on the suitability of the candidate. The possible misuse of power entailed in this practice, the potential violation of confidentiality, as well as the inhibition of free-association, should be obvious to all. That it is not obvious is simply bewildering. Secondly, although it is impossible to judge the validity of Dr. Masson's account of his five day a week, five year analysis, if the reader discounts fifty percent of Dr. Masson's remembrances, one is left with an appalling picture of what might have occurred. Dr. Masson remembers, with the help of some notes, his analysis as consisting of his analyst intruding with his personal opinions into just about everything-particularly about other analysts. He would apparendy start sess