The Psychoanalytic Situation: An Examination of Its Development and Essential Nature

Abstract

Most of this book is worthwhile reading for psychoanalysts. The author discusses many aspects of the psychoanalytic treatment situation as related to the basic theories of psychoanalysis. He makes frequent references to other writers, and it is sometimes difficult to discern the distinction between the author's ideas and the ideas of those to whom he is referring. Some of the points raised and discussed by the author will provoke thought in the reader. He talks of the primordial transference as distinct from the mature transference and compares these to the gratifying mother and the mother of separation. Further in this regard he makes the comparison between the classical physician who gratifies and tends directly to bodily needs in contrast to the psychoanalytic physician who is relatively depriving. He also discusses at some length the meaning of speech in the process of psychobiological development and as related to the psychoanalytic