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The Legacy and Promise of Hans Loewald

Editor : Rosemary H. Balsam, Editor : Elizabeth A. Brett, Editor : Lawrence Levenson

Reviews and Endorsements

Those who consider Hans Loewald to have been one of the icons of the contemporary psychoanalytic world will be eager to get their hands on each of these thoughtful new books. The editors have put together rich and nuanced contributions by many of our most cherished contemporary psychoanalytic writers. This volume covers a multitude of perspectives, such as the intellectual history and evolution of Loewald's work, writers with whom he exchanged bold and far-reaching conversations, his well-known philosophical depth, and ardent approach to clinical and developmental issues.
Gerald Fogel, MD, founding member and former director of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute; author of The Work of Hans Loewald: An Introduction and Commentary

This volume is explicitly intended to correct a surprising lack of emphasis on Hans Loewald's groundbreaking contributions to psychoanalytic practice and theory. Given how much ground ego psychology has lost to relational, British object relations, and intersubjective theories in our literature and professional conferences, many who trained or worked in New Haven are startled at what little credit is given to Loewald's contributions. It is as though Loewald's emphasis on internalization as well as the relational aspects of therapeutic action were not major steps in this evolution.
This book seeks to redress this gap, while expanding on Loewald's ideas. Each chapter is written by an experienced analyst with clear familiarity and appreciation for Loewald's attempt at what a more self-promoting individual would have proclaimed a paradigmatic revolution.
Those interested in the history of psychoanalysis in the United States will find the early chapters fascinating. Carlson's description of Loewald's entry into the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute and interaction with David Rapaport is illuminating, in particular, his contribution to Roy Schafer evolving beyond the ideas of Rapaport, his mentor.
Equally important was Loewald's interest in children and human development. The chapters on developmental issues and phenomena bring this often-unappreciated dimension of Loewald into view.
Finally, Loewald's longstanding interest in philosophy and the work of Heidegger highlight his impressive intellect and wish to keep psychoanalysis situated in the humanities and its focus on mind.
This book is a must read for anyone interested in the development of psychoanalytic thought as well as those whose interest lies more narrowly with therapeutic action. Several of its chapters should be included in any course on the historical evolution of psychoanalysis.
Alan Sugarman, PhD, training and supervising child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst; former and inaugural head, San Diego Psychoanalytic Center, Department of Psychoanalytic Education, APsA.

These books show why so many people see Hans Loewald as the unmatched innovator in Freudian psychoanalysis and the most profound extender of its possibilities. Loewald brings out a whole new dimension of the Freudian mind. If you are disappointed that the Freudian discovery seems to miss the hopeful vibrance of human life, you will be amazed to see what Loewald draws from the tradition.
If you're a clinician whose old terms seem a little stiff and mechanical, your professional adventure will be refreshed when you see those terms spring to life. Loewald worked quietly without proselytizing, but his writing and teaching have kindled wide enthusiasm, and a Hans W. Loewald Center has formed, from which we have this collection of scholars and practitioners who explore applications of Loewald's outlook to the nature of mind and mankind, the workings of treatment and the wider use of theory.
Experts here discuss the philosophical grounding that silently underlies Loewald's thinking about, for example, the mental scrambling of past, present, and future and the role of "futurity" in all present experience. A chapter recounts Loewald's uneasy reception by associates, and there are comparisons of his relationship to other theorists such as Winnicott and Laplanche. Other topics include a Loewaldian approach to gender, Loewald's theory of language, his reflections on religion, on mourning, on adolescence and of course the impact of his great mini-monograph on the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis.
Despite his courageous independence, Loewald was the most self-effacing of pioneers, and the editors anticipate our personal curiosity by including chapters on his training, the legacy of his studies with Heidegger, and what it was like to be treated or supervised by Loewald as a clinician. To get a fuller sense of Loewald as a person, we hear from his family as well.
These books are a treasure trove for Loewaldians, and a prospectus for those who have wondered what all the fuss is about. It accounces a new era of innovation that might, indeed, go far to secure a future for psychoanalysis.
Lawrence Friedman, MD, clinical professor of Psychiatry, Weill-Cornell University College of Medicine; Psychoanalytic Association of New York

Loewald writes poetically: "We would say that the patient instead of having a past, is his past. He does not distinguish himself as a rememberer from the content of his memory."
This wonderful book conveys how the language of Loewald speaks to us profoundly, enlightens us, helps us clinically and theoretically, and conveys also that psychoanalysis may be approached in many different ways. Loewald has engaged Freud in such a complex fashion that we too become deeply involved with his investigation. I believe that everyone in the psychoanalytic field is looking towards the future, can benefit from this exciting, new encounter with Loewald.
Haydee Faimberg, MD, training and supervising analyst, Paris Psychoanalytical Society (SPP); author of The Telescoping of Generations and winner of the Sigourney Award for Oustanding Achievement