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Tradition and Change in Psychoanalysis

Author(s) : Roy Schafer

Reviews and Endorsements

'Psychoanalysis is changing. Roy Schafer, a major participant in that change, examines both psychoanalysis and his own ideas in this book. He traces lines of continuity back to Freud and his immediate followers, and describes the major transformations that followed, particularly in the works of Heinz Hartmann and the ego psychologists, Hanna Segal and the contemporary Kleiniens of London, and Schafer himself.

'Schafer approaches psychoanalysis from a post-modernist perspective: no assumption can be accepted unexamined and no conclusion can be final. No single approach can be complete, and although some interpretations may be wrong, there is never a single a single correct one. He contrasts those analysts who see the past as a resource for understanding the present with those that see the present as a source of material for reconstructing the past, once again demonstrating his adeptness at both of these approaches.'
- Robert Michels, M.D.

'The essays in this book reveal the depth of Schafer's hermeneutic and pragmatist vision of truth and scientific progress. (They are) careful, precise, respectful yet fresh in vision.'
- Adrienne Harris, PhD.

'Roy Schafer's oeuvre has been characterized by continuous growth and innovation. This quality of expression is fueled not only by his brilliant scientific mind but also his firm commitment to Freud's idea of an analytic curiosity, a sustained scientific exploration unrestrained by convention or prevalent socio-cultural mores. Schafer himself says it well: "Being curious is what goes best with being consistently analytic". Now, in this splendid new book he takes his pioneering discussions on female psychology even further. He demonstrates the limits long imposed by the binary thinking of psychoanalysis. Here is a man who does understand "what women want".'
- Marianne Goldberger, M.D.