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92 BOOK REVIEWS oedipal) concerns, for anchoring borderline or other dissociated states of tension, for examining madness (paranoia, psychosis), and so forth. But Gabbard sticks to her oedipal focus, and in one of her best sections she works her way through the birth, oral, anal, and phallic fantasies of The Birthday Party to argue persuasively that "oedipal fears are Stanley's principal problem" (p.54). Conceivably, Pinter's so-called comedy of menace might also draw much of its force from what psychoanalysts call "stranger anxiety" (cf., Rene Spitz), related to a crucial dyadic phase of separation from the mother when the infant is around eight months. Thus, the infantile Stanley is removed from the delights of Meg's breakfast table by the mysterious McCann and Goldberg. This may be so tcrrifying that it can only be represented at the later, more secure oedipal stage. And so while it may be advantageous at least briefly to view drama from the vantage point of the id, even the id is not always so simple in its aims and strategies as the paradigms we construct to explain it. More seriously, and this amplifies an earlier objection, the vantage point of the id allows for only the unconscious defense system of the ego to come into focus. This is why we must remind ourselves that though everyone dreams, the artist alone creates. He may do so more or less directly out of his dreams (witness Strindberg) or in apparently analogous ways, but there remains a world of difference between the two processes. Gabbard's method would convert all plays into dream plays. Only by leaving behind analogies with dreams and glossaries of fantasies will we come to recognize the unique capacity of consciousness that is creativity. Often enough, however, Gabbard manages to credit a given play with having been shaped by a greater intelligence than either dreaming character or dreaming author, and then she frees herself from the inherent dilemmas of her approach sufficiently to reward serious study of her researches. I will offer but one sampling by way of closing: "[The Room] has shown that man is consciously confused and unconsciously controlled, that his actions have less to do with the interpersonal relationships of the moment than with the forgotten events of infancy. Man still seeks refuge from a fearful world. He still longs for the security of the womb; yet, he still strives (0 dominate. He still fears to love. He still expects punishment that reflects his own guilts rather than the enmity of others. He still acts on his old yearnings to marry the parent of the opposite sex and to kill the parent of the same sex. Thus Pinter's plays are not unmotivated at all. They are indeed motivated, as people in real life are motivated, by the psychological phenomena of the unconscious." (p.38). DANIEL DERVIN Mary Washington College BUITER'S GOING UP, by Steven H. Gale. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1977. 358 pp. The most interesting reading in this detailed survey of Harold Pinter's work is to be found in the massive collection of facts it presents, both significant and BOOK REVIEWS 93 trivial. These include a list of Pinter's roles as an actor; of the awards made to him; and of the translations of his plays, into Czech, Danish, Dutch, French. German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese. Serbo~Croat. Spanish, Swedish and Turkish! Among his juvenilia are-in some way reassuringly- poems called "Dawn" and "0 Beloved Maiden," for the Hackney Downs School Magazine. I was particularly fascinated by Steven Gale's aCCollnt of the difficulties he faced in 3ucmpting to trace the numerous textual alterations in successive editions of Pinter's plays; he is not the only Pinter critic to find the publishers less helpful than one might have hoped. Steven Gale reports: "Methuen, Pinter's British publisher, for instance, answered a question about dating the textual differences between various editions of The Dwarfs by saying that there are no differences; and Grove Press, the American publisher. in answer to the same query replied that they simply reprint the Methuen texts and are. therefore. unaware of any changes." Mr. Gale's...

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