Faces in a Cloud

George E. Atwood, Ph.D., is a core faculty member at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City, and professor of psychology at Rutgers University. Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D., is a faculty member and training supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles; a core faculty member at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity; an dclinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine.

In my judgment, the authors have made a strong case for the proposition that the structure of a theorist's metapsychology will duplicate the structure of his subjective world, laid down mainly by the critical formative events of his life. It is a praiseworthy accomplishment. They have done much to clear the air of metapsychological clouds. They have shown new possibilities for psychoanalysis as a strictly clinical theory. All of these steps bring psychoanalytic thought closer to its observational base, closer also to the humanitarian impulse that underlies the helping professions.