The Ethical Dimension of Psychoanalysis: A Dialogue

The Ethical Dimension of Psychoanalysis: A Dialogue by W. W. Meissner Albany, NY: State University of Albany Press, 2003,371 pp.

This is a scholarly and extensive review of the interrelation between psychoanalytic and ethical theories. In the preface, the author sets out his intention "to explore and explicate some areas of interaction and common interest to psychoanalytic and ethical perspectives." He argues that psychoanalysis contains an ethical doctrine and that ethical issues "pervade the therapeutic process."

In the first chapter, "Freudian and Postfreudian Ethics," Meissner writes that Freud's use of the terms moral and immoral reflected his belief that the …