Choice Review

Berman (Univ. of Albany) skates on thin ice with this book--and he is well aware of it. Part case history, part pseudoanalysis, part voyeurism, and part fascinating reading, Diaries is a study of journals written by college students in the author's literature and psychoanalysis classes. The reader's initial reaction--which remains a lingering question--is likely to be that of one of the students Berman quotes: "Since when is the psychoanalysis of my life anybody's business other than mine?" Yet 95 percent of the students gave Berman permission to use their diary entries. More than 5,000 entries, from 65 students, appear. Citing the self-healing powers of diary writing, the author discusses, at times analytically (occasionally pseudoanalytically), what students reveal, conceal, and discover about themselves by writing. The self-revelation and analysis may help them to understand literature better. Admitting that he has been a "phallic reader," Berman wisely refrains from an overinterpretation of the diaries as a series of Oedipal or pre-Oedipal conflicts. Still, the book is self-serving, particularly with the inclusion of a 30-page afterword written by one of Berman's former students who is now a colleague. A course syllabus is included. Recommended for literature and psychology collections at the graduate level.