Contemporary Psychoanalysis in America

This collection illustrates what one contributor calls the 'intellectual ferment' of the art or science of psychoanalysis. The variety and seriousness of intellectual effort is throughout very striking. The writers are not detached theorists but clinicians, absorbed in what is really the study of humanity, often the study of particular and painful stories of unhappiness. I thought of the old Roman claim nihil humanum me alienum puto as a motto which these dedicated practitioners deserve more than any other professional group I can think of. Some of the contributors are interested in other fields of research, including narrative, and they are in some ways kin to novelists. This is a remarkable book and one cannot but think highly of the profession it describes and celebrates. Sir Frank Kermode, formerly King Edward VII Professor of English, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of the British Academy

This book is a "best of the best" volume—cutting-edge work that covers the systematization of theory, including its application to problems of development and culture, and aspects of practice, whether pointing to elements of the therapeutic or elaborating the psychoanalyst's position within the analytic relationship.

This book is a unique and superb gateway to current psychoanalytic thinking. Thirty of America's foremost psychoanalysts—leaders in defining the current pluralistic state of the profession—have each presented what they consider to be their most significant contribution to the field. No mere anthology, these are the key writings that underlie current discussions of psychoanalytic theory and technique.

The chapters cover contemporary ideas of intersubjectivity, object relations theory, self psychology, relational psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, clinical technique, changing concepts of unconscious, empirical research, infant observation, gender and sexuality, and more. While the differences in point of view are profound, there is also a striking coherence on some core issues. Each of the contributions features an introduction by the volume editor and a note by the author explaining the rationale for its selection. The brilliant introduction by Peter Fonagy provides an overview and places each author in the context of contemporary psychoanalysis.

A list of the authors may convey the astonishing breadth of this volume:
Brenner, Bromberg, Busch, Chodorow, Cooper, Emde, Friedman, Gabbard, Goldberg, Greenberg, Grossman, Hoffman, Jacobs, Kantrowitz, Kernberg, Levenson, Luborsky, Michels, Ogden, Ornstein, Person, Pine, Renik, Schafer, Schwaber, Shapiro, Smith, Stern, Stolorow, Wallerstein

This is a "best of the best" volume—cutting-edge writing, highly accessible and studded with vivid clinical illustrations. Anyone wishing to acquire a comprehensive, authoritative, readily accessible—even entertaining—guide to American psychoanalytic thinking will find their goal fulfilled in this monumental collection.