Balint, Bowlby, Spitz, Winnicott, Green, Tustin, Bower, Bateson,
and Brazelton. Hamilton traces the progression from a closed
system in which the infant is a passive recipient of experience to
an open system in which the infant is an agent in relationships --
an active participant in the interplay of self, other, and external
world from the beginning.

With a literary and philosophic sensitivity that is rare in psy-
choanalytic writing, Hamiltonreads the infants of theory through
the images and metaphors of these writers, as a good analyst
would read the nuances and transformations of expression in the
analytic setting. Her aim is to show how psychoanalytic theory
and practice can overcome a certain narcissistic self-containment
of its own, in which theories tend to mirror the pathologies they
are about and, therefore, lead to a tragic view of human knowl-
edge and potential. I propose an alternative view of knowing
which is not tragic but expansive', she writes.

Hamilton's expansive view is unfolded in her interpretation
and use of two master narratives: the myth of Narcissus and
the drama of Oedipus Rex. Each story is a parable of limitation.
Narcissus cannot grasp the image of himself and hears only the
echoes of his own lamentations. Oedipus seeks self-knowledge
against the deceptions and violations of the parental past. Hamil-
ton's rich reading of these stories is carefully played out in
relation to the evidence of child observations, clinical experi-
ences, and the discourses of analytic theories. The result is an
enlargement of psychoanalytic sensibility. Scientific thought and
poetic representation are held together in the open space of her
imagination. The tragic view thus gives way to the potential
space of creative living, in both theory and practice.

Since it was first published in 1982, Narcissus and Oedipus has
become part of a growing psychoanalytic literature that includes
and reaches beyond the tragic vision. It remains today an exem-
plary work -- a bridge that links past and future, origins and
unbounded possibilities. Like the therapeutic work of the analytic
relationship, it enlarges the scope of our vision and enables us to
see continuities where there were unmediated gaps and absences.
In this new edition, Narcissus and Oedipus will provide a secure
base for continuing explorations of an open psychoanalytic do-
main that overlaps the borders of many disciplines and receives
vital news from regions yet unknown.

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