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A new book by Thorkil Vanggaard is bound to awaken considerable interest and curiosity among Scandinavian psychoanalysts. The author is wellknown as one of the grand old men in the history of Nordic psychoanalysis, although he has withdrawn from professional contacts with Scandinavian psychoanalytic colleagues a number of years ago. Our only way of gaining access to his present thinking about psychoanalytic theory and practice is thus to study his writings. As the main part of his recent book, entitled Angst (Anxiety), consists of the report of a psychoanalytic treatment, conducted and written down day by day some 18 or 19 years ago, we may rightly assume that it can be regarded as an account of a possible practical application of the theoretical standings held by the author in a previous book, Phallós, which appeared in 1969 (English translation, 1972) and is a scholarly treatise on the symbolic meaning of the phallus.
Angst contains, in addition, a short commentary written by the former patient, and some pedagogical and theoretical remarks, in which the author seems to be addressing himself to the educated laity rather than to his colleagues.
When reading the report of the treatment, I suppose that most contemporary analysts would react with a feeling similar to that of the reviewer, that is with growing amazement. What kind of activity is Vanggaard sharing with his patient, Dr. A? By the title of the book, as well as by a preface by Professor Joseph Welner and some introductory remarks by