Selected Papers of Joseph Sandler

Joseph Sandler is known to students of psychoanalysis the world over as one of the chief figures of psychoanalytic theory for the past 25 years. His writings have been immensely influential in setting the directions of theoretical reflections and articulating the dominant themes of the still emerging „talking cure“. This comprehensive volume brings together for the first time the many divergent elements of Sandler’s rich reconceptualization of psychoanalytic thought.

Psychoanalysis was still very much a developing theory at the time of Freud’s death. Coupled with Freud’s lack of concern for the rigorous use of terms, this meant that much had to be done in order to bring psychoanalysis more fully under the aegis of „hard science“. Sandler, as the Director of the Anna Freud Centre, has been in a unique position to effect the necessary changes. WIth his rare conceptual gifts, which enable him to balance the dynamics of intrapsychic forces and their interplay with environmental and object-derives influences, he has made highly influential and important contributions to the understanding of the formation and functioning of the superego, narcissism, and defense mechanisms, as well as the role of affects and their place in the constant and life-long interchange with significant object.

The critical insights in this volume are both conceptual and methodological. Sandler and his colleagues, employing the archives of psychoanalytic case histories at the Anna Freud Centre, have developed a method of indexing that allows them to rigorously develop and test new concepts and approaches to theory and treatment. This fascinating process also permits Sandler to re-examine and refine many „established“ psychoanalytic principles, such as the superego, the pleasure principle, fantasy, the ego and the self, sublimation, and more. Rarely have method and concept been so well integrated.

The seminal papers presented here are as strong and fresh now as when they originally appeared. They are arranged chronologically to reveal Sandler’s evolving understanding of psychoanalytic thought. Sandler’s brief chapter introductions, by placing each contribution in conceptual context, gives the work a unified flow.

FROM SAFETY TO SUPEREGO will be „must reading“ for anyone interested in psychoanalysis. As a historical document it provides a conceptual review of mainstream psychoanalytic thought since Freud’s death. As a theoretical document, it demonstrates the continuing viability of psychoanalytic therapy. Most of all, it gives clinicians and students of psychoanalysis (and particularly of object-relations theory) the opportunity to experience the full measure of Sandler’s conceptualizations and therapeutic contributions.