'When we wish to preserve our patients' anonymity, we refer to them as Mr or Mrs X or we call them an imaginary given name - Hans or Dora, for example - as if a false first name could replace the proper name without consequences. Psychoanalysts have written a good deal about the influence of the patronym but very little about that of the given name. We must be grateful to J. E. Tesone for dedicating an original and very well documented study to a subject that actually calls upon us in every psychoanalytic cure. His great clinical experience and double Argentine and French culture enable him to address this theme with high clinical finesse and all the wealth of his cultural sources. This work offers its reader a goldmine of reflections that can easily be applied to clinical practice and to a deeper understanding of the effects of transmissions of family symbolism.'- Professor Daniel Widlocher, full member of the French Psychoanalytical Association, past-President of the International Psychoanalytical Association'An excellent review of the meaning and function of names in different cultures, religions, and through literature.
The impact of the name gives body to the being and to the road of life in a context of social security. What occurs with the name in a context of sociopolitical violence that attacks the being, tries to erase it, to scratch it out and make its traces disappear, to change the naming or to not name at all? The psychoanalytic viewpoint accompanies the whole itinerary of this exciting exploration.'- Professor Yolanda Gampel, full member, Israel Psychoanalytic Society'Although the interest of the subject of the "name" presented by Tesone is multiple, I also consider it an essential element of what we [Willy and Madeleine Baranger] wish to emphasize as the notion of "field" in analytic relations. It is precisely this fact that is implicitly and explicitly exemplified in the cases in this highly interesting book.'- Madeleine Baranger, full member, Argentine Psychoanalytic Association.