Commitment and Compassion in Psychoanalysis: Selected Papers of Edward M. Weinshel

Over the course of his distinguished career, Edward Weinshel has been a moral and intellectual force in contemporary psychoanalysis and an outspoken opponent of current trends in and out of the field toward dehumanization and deindividualization. Thinking and working within the mainstream American ego psychology paradigm, Weinshel epitomizes what Leonard Shengold characterizes as the "controlled moral passion" of the psychoanalyst, the ability "to care with an intensity that is employed with tactful empathy, according to awareness of the needs and vulnerability of the individual patient." This volume brings together 14 of Weinshel's major papers. The six clinical papers reprinted in the collection address a kaleidoscope of common personality organizations and propensities which, in their extreme variants, motivate individuals to seek psychoanalytic assistance. Covering topics that include "neurotic equivalents" of necrophilia, negation, lying, "gaslighting" (brainwashing), perceptual distortion through analysis, and inconsolability, these papers reflect Weinshel's belief that theoretical advance must emerge from the matrix of clinical experience rather than being an exercise in armchair theorizing. Hence they revolve around patient descriptions that are detailed and richly evocative, case histories that, in Wallerstein's words, "come alive in the reading."

Table of Contents:
Shengold, Edward M. Weinshel: A Mensch for All Seasons. Part I: Clinical Papers. On Certain Neurotic Equivalents of Necrophilia (1972, with Victor Calef). "I Didn't Mean It": Negation as a Character Trait (1977). Some Observations on Not Telling the Truth (1979). Some Clinical Consquences of Introjection: Gaslighting (1981, with Victor Calef). Perceptual Distortions During Analysis: Some Observations on the Role of the Superego in Reality Testing (1986). On Inconsolability (1989). Part II: Theoretical Papers. The Ego in Health and Normality (1970). The Transference Neurosis: A Survey of the Literature (1971). Reporting, Nonreporting, and Assessment in the Training Analysis (1973, with Victor Calef). The Analyst as the Conscience of the Analysis (1980, with Victor Calef). Some Observations on the Psychoanalytic Process (1984). Further Observations on the Psychoanalytic Process (1990). How Wide is the Widening Scope of Psychoanalysis and How Solid Is Its Structural Model? Some Concerns and Observations (1990). Therapeutic Technique in Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (1992).

About the Author :
Robert S. Wallerstein, M.D., is Emeritus Professor and former Chair, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst, San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute.  He was the President of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1971-72) and President of the International Psychoanalytical Association (1985-89).