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During a conference, I discovered this book on a sales stand with the following statement by Christopher Bol-las on the front cover: “This is quite simply the most intelligent book on contemporary psychoanalysis to be found and the best integration of theory and practice I have read”. This introduction aroused my interest and I bought the book. Indeed, reading it confirmed that the writer has a profound understanding of and presents an impressive overview over the contemporary pluralistic landscape of theoretical approaches and clinical practice of psychoanalysis in Europe and worldwide. The book is highly relevant to our thinking in our still infant century. That a 200-page book includes 24 pages of literature references by itself indicates that the main text is condensed. The density of the book's content requires slow reading if one wants to really assimilate it. However, Jean White provides a summary of her main points, and her writing style is clear, which makes it possible to enjoy the book without necessarily exploring all its details. To take the time to do so is nonetheless highly rewarding.
In the introduction, White emphasizes that her intention is not to provide a lexical presentation of concepts and ways of thinking, but to advance her credo, which is to set a standard towards an open, process-based, undogmatic and mutually enriching model for contemporary psychoanalysis. Her recipe is to emphasize multi-faceted thinking and avoid premature and forced synthesizing, which approach she believes can serve as a weapon against ideological fundamentalism and dogmatism in the field.
The book comprises two main sections. In the first, White presents the main characteristics of three contemporary paradigms in the psychoanalytic field. She has chosen these three because they have an identifiable metapsychology as their basis, and she puts into perspective how other schools or movements emerge as derivatives of or are paradigmatically related to these three schools.