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remingtonchase's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.5
A dense book. Very informative but also jargon-filled and pretty dry, making it less accessible and smooth at times.
daniherz's review against another edition
5.0
This is a great book to help break down complex psychodynamic concepts so that they're palatable. I read this in conjunction with taking a psychodynamics class which was a helpful way to get the most out of the class, and this book.
jeremygoodjob's review against another edition
4.0
Not even sure this is a particularly good book, but it was helpful with understanding what's going on in my psychoanalysis.
javorstein's review against another edition
5.0
A phenomenal overview of post-Freudian thought in the last hundred years. Mitchell and Black clearly portray the precise theoretical developments and disagreements central to each school of thought (interpersonal, Lacanian, self, ego, relational, object relations, etc.) as well as, in the two chapters on controversies in theory and technique, the most important questions in psychoanalysis today. Highly recommended for anyone looking to gain a broader understanding of the intellectual history of psychoanalysis and the problems each school focuses on and seeks to address.
mark_lm's review against another edition
3.0
This is an unusually lucid discussion of Freud and various subsequent variations of psychoanalysis up until about 1995. The jargon may get you down, but I think this has been handled about as clearly as possible. The various theories are presented in the classical fashion with an associated case history.
[There is no discussion of attempted measures of efficacy, controlled studies, or similar possible impediments to these creations, but there is plenty of literature on that (or its absence) in the last few decades.]
[There is no discussion of attempted measures of efficacy, controlled studies, or similar possible impediments to these creations, but there is plenty of literature on that (or its absence) in the last few decades.]
paulataua's review against another edition
4.0
I wanted a fairly accessible refresher on psychoanalytic thought before tackling Jacques Lacan and this book gave me everything I wanted and more. It did a fairly good job of starting with the early Freud , moving through the ego psychologists, the object relations school, psychologies of identity, contemporary revisionists, and ended with a short piece on Lacan. I feel a little braver about the journey to come thanks to this.
cavernism's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.75
Very dense and difficult to parse out. Explaining these concepts and theoretical approaches doesn't need to be this opaque!
seaya's review against another edition
1.0
It seems very interesting to me that a lot of people have called this book quite 'accessible', personally I though it was almost unreadable. 'Did not like it' is quite an understatement. Most of the descriptions are very abstract and it seems to me that the writer had trouble organizing the content into a coherent whole, for me it lacks structure and clarity. I had no trouble at all putting it down, on the contrary, it was a struggle every time to pick it up again. I don't experience this often when reading. Additionally, most of my classmates had the same opinion about the book. Therefore I was really surprised that most GoodReads reviews were so positive.
mconant's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a good overview of psychoanalytic theory. It is somewhat dense, but a good textbook.