Description
Because there are all too few extensive case reports in the psychoanalytic literature, a predominantly verbatim record of a complete analysis, covering every phase of the treatment, is unique enough to attract widespread attention on that account alone. When a dedicated and skilful author makes available the kind of experience described in this book, the result is a work that will intrigue and inspire all who are interested in the study of the psychoanalytic process. Dewald’s stated purposes are to illustrate with primary data the phenomenology of mental functioning during an analysis, to demonstrate the nature of the therapeutic process and the central importance of the transference neurosis, to indicate how the analyst’s working mind contributes to the advancement of the process, and to provide a model showing how psychoanalytic theory and metapsychological formulations are derived from the data of clinical observations. The result is a most stimulating and instructive contribution, eminently successful in fulfilling its objectives.
