Psychoanalysis - by Janet Malcolm (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the author of In the Freud Archives and The Journalist and the Murderer comes an intensive look at the practice of psychoanalysis through interviews with "Aaron Green," a Freudian analyst in New York City.

"Janet Malcom has managed somehow to peer into the reticent, reclusive world of psychoanalysis and to report to us, with remarkable fidelity, what she has seen. Her book is journalism become art." --Joseph Andelson, The New York Times Book Review

Malcolm is accessible and lucid in describing the history of psychoanalysis and its development in the United States. It provides rare insight into the contradictory world of psychoanalytic training and treatment and a foundation for our understanding of psychiatry and mental health.

Review Quotes

"Janet Malcolm has managed somehow to peer into the reticent, reclusive world of psychoanalysis and to report to us, with remarkable fidelity, what she has seen. When I began reading I thought condescendingly, 'She will get the facts right, and everything else wrong.' She does gets the facts right, but far more impressive, she has been able to capture and convey the claustral atmosphere of the profession. Her book is journalism become art." -- Joseph Adelson, The New York Times Book Review

"Miss Malcolm asks the questions that every patient has ever wanted to ask but knew it was hopeless...More momentous still, Miss Malcolm's questions get answers." -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

"Malcolm provides an elegant, precise summary of the history and development of Freud's ideas...She has drawn a provocative portrait of one physician in Freud's impossible profession." -- Jean Strouse, Newsweek

"Her treatment of the subject is original, rich and will reward anyone interested in the science or business of changing minds." -- E. James Lieberman, The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

Janet Malcolm's previous books are Diana and Nikon: Essays on Photography; Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession; In the Freud Archives; The Journalist and the Murderer; The Purloined Clinic: Selected Writings; The Silent Woman: Slyvia Plath and Ted Hughes; and The Crime of Sheila McGough. She lives in New York with her husband, Gardner Botsford.