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."