The concept behind this book is the presentation of psychoanalytic history, through the work of persons other than Freud. It fulfills its goal with great success. In brief presentation, about 15 pages each, the participants present the main contributions of 41 prominent psychoanalysts, from Freud's original group to the present day. Generally the essays include biographical sketches, with emphasis on the person's interests, thought, and major publications. With 41 different lines of investigation, the text conveys a picture of this varied and stimulating field, and the struggle to make psychoanalysis a science.
Although as with all sciences there is the tendency to cling to accepted ideas, one aim of the editors is to counter dogmatism. This they accomplish by presenting the work not as Freudian, or neo-Freudian, or heretical, but as contributions to science, which, like all contributions, must be tested and evaluated. And the authors make the evaluations, mostly