Primary Process Thinking

Reviews / Votes

Once in a while, a really exceptional book appears in scientific literature. Holt's book on measuring primary process thinking is one of those rare gifts, in a world where genuine scholarship is too often sacrificed to the benefits of transitory fashion. In my opinion, this book constitutes the most significant and successful attempt ever at dimensional quantification of psychoanalytic propositions. Interestingly, the book appears at a time when psychoanalytic theory is under attack precisely for its alleged past failure to meet the exigencies of contemporary scientific research. Nothing could be more useful in these times of harsh controversy than a book based on data rather than passions. -- Germain Lavoie, University of Montreal A masterful reconceptualization of a psychoanalytically-based theory of thinking, transcending Freud's no longer tenable metapsychological constructions, and incorporating now neuroscience and cognitive science advances-engagingly written and happily quite jargon-free. A must for those concerned to understand the nature of thinking as a quintessential human activity. -- Robert S. Wallerstein, MD, past president of the International Psychoanalytic Association The nature and functions of primary process modes of thought are thoughtfully, systematically explored in Holt's scholarly monograph. Underlying much poetry, metaphor, and tropes, primary process thoughts explain much allusive creativity in the arts and are an unacknowledged presence in spontaneous, unconsidered life. -- Jack Block, University of California, Berkeley Robert Holt takes us on a splendid journey through a jungle of theories concerning primary and secondary process thought. He lays out a lucid empirical path to study issues long mired in the conceptual realm, from condensations to displacements, so to speak. Holt's sterling empirical approach, forged from psychoanalytic insights but liberated from the attending vicissitudes, highlights a novel contribution to the science of mind. -- Jaak Panksepp, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University This extraordinary, useful, and yes, daunting book is the result - indeed, in an important sense, the culmination - of a long and productive professional lifetime of work... An expert, closely reasoned, detailed critique... Offers an ingenious, creative, multifaceted manualized system that the auhtor and his collaborators have developed over the years for scoring primary process manifestations in Rorschach responses... Demands attentive reading and repays it by introducing a method that is itself a codification of Holt's sophisticated understanding of how primary process thinking reveals itself in actual clinical work... Holt is scrupulous... Provides exemplary demonstrations of the application of scientific rigor and the payoff from years of devoted concentration on a grand but humbling topic. -- Harriette Kaley PsycCRITIQUES, June 2010 A remarkably sophisticated integration and operationalization of the psychoanalytic theory of thinking, from illogical drive-laden to adaptive even creative thought, that has led to systematic empirical investigations that have enabled Robert Holt to enrich and extend the psychoanalytic theory of complex mental processes. -- Sidney J. Blatt, Yale University