Psychoanalytic Terms & Concepts

Abstract

ELIZABETH L. AUCHINCLOSS, M.D., AND ESLEE SAMBERG, M.D. (EDITORS): Psychoanalytic Terms & Concepts. American Psychoanalytic Association, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2012. 341 pp., $75.00. ISBN: 978-0-300-10986-3 (cloth)Commissioned by the American Psychoanalytic Association, Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts, edited by Elizabeth L. Auchincloss, M.D. and Eslee Samberg, M.D., is substantial revision of the 1990 third edition book of the same title by Burness E. Moore, M.D. and Bernard D. Fine, M.D. Its first edition, originally titled A Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts, had been published in 1967.Editors Auchincloss and Samberg assembled a small army of people (p. vii). Their Editorial Board consisted of 27 analysts representing diverse group of theoretical backgrounds. In all, there were over 175 contributors. The editors' intent was to bring together and explicate psychoanalytic terms and concepts used in the discourse of contemporary, North American, English-speaking clinical psychoanalysis, (p. xiii) and they saw themselves as the glue to hold the project together over the more than six years it took to complete. They created hybrid of dictionary, encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, textbook, and intellectual (p. xiii).The editors come exceptionally well qualified for the task. Elizabeth L Auchincloss, M.D. is Senior Associate Director and Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and Vice-Chairman for Graduate Medical Education and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Eslee Samberg, M.D. is Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at The New York Psychoanalytic Institute and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College.This edition follows the format created by Moore and Fine: an alphabetical listing of the most important terms and concepts (and sometimes theorists) of psychoanalysis. One of the most fascinating additions, though, is the new Introduction, version of which appeared previously in the journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Auchincloss and Samberg thoughtfully delineate the history of lexicography in general, as well as the specific problems inherent in psychoanalytic language. They are fully aware of the challenges involved in translation from Freud's original German, as well as the colorful poetic use of metaphor, initially seen in Freud's own writing but typical of psychoanalytic writing in general.The result is extraordinary: the volume is comprehensive mini-encyclopedia of from its Freudian inception to the state of contemporary with its growing pluralism. The editors admit to their own point of view: ego psychology or modern structural theory, with an admixture of object relations theory, self psychology, and developmental psychoanalysis (p. xiv), but these biases are not evident. They have thoroughly succeeded in their mission of providing diversity of theoretical orientation, academic discipline, and geographical location (pp. …