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The question “Is this book indispensable?” is more-or-less irrelevant in a world where nobody is able to read more than a fraction of what is published every year, and where the bulk of already published works that have turned out to be classical exceeds every possible manageable survey. Of course, there still are literary works that can change our understanding of the world, and therefore cannot easily be disregarded. But such works are rare; they are given to us as a grace or a “gift from above.” But there are also works that are essential on a more modest level. Is Bo Sigrell's new book, such a work? I shall try to answer this question.
It is completely clear that any book trying to fight its way through the cold winds of widespread reluctance and hostility against psychoanalysis that dominates this age of darkness (as far as psychoanalysis is concerned) to a considerable extent will have to dwell in the catacombs, meditating on a lost era of greatness. However, this is the time not for nostalgia, but for making our thoughts deeper and more sincere.
Bo Sigrell makes his approach to the three Scandinavian poets, whose work he wants to elucidate, in quite a submissive way. He is surely sincere in his attempt to understand what he reads, although he admits that he is an amateur in the field of poetry; he is a Liebhaber who tries to grasp what affects him, and why. And of course Sigrell is bound to use the tools he has at his disposal, that is, psychoanalytic theory. We shall not look down on his avowed “amateurishness,” because it is driven, I think, by a real love for the object and not by narcissistic or grandiose aims, for, as an analyst, Bo Sigrell represents a tolerant, amiable, and capable personality. As a professor and lecturer, he, in addition, has a didactic tendency and a capacity to make his points of view clear and intelligible. Through his unpretentious approach, he is almost able to avoid the pitfalls that so many analysts have fallen into, namely to te