Just copying from Amazon reviews

What Greenberg and Mitchell accomplished in this book, in terms of comparative theory, is awesome. The field of psychoanalysis and the relational movement are deeply indebted to them for this ground-breaking work. However, I would not recommend this book to most people.

Because of its density, it is not the best initial overview of psychoanalytic theory. For that purpose I would recommend Mitchell's "Freud and Beyond," which is an excellent introduction/overview and much easier to get through.

If your goal is to learn from the wisdom that Stephen Mitchell brought to the field of psychoanalysis, this is also not the best book. (The authors are not presenting their own theoretical contributions. Rather, they are comparing the major contributions in the history of the field and arguing for a theoretical division into two camps: The Drive Model and the Relational Model. Their preference for the Relational Model is evident, but they do not develop their own Relational ideas in this book.)

If you are hungry for Mitchell's brilliant ideas about Relational Psychoanalysis, I'd start with "Relational Concepts in Psychoanalysis." Then move on to his other books (and other Relational writers). The most fitting goal for reading this book would be to develop a more advanced meta-theoretical understanding of the field of psychoanalysis, as well as to gain an appreciation of the historical moment when Mitchell, Greenberg and others put together this important meta-theoretical picture, which was key in facilitating the development of the Relational movement.

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The title should read "The History of Object Relations", or "The Emergence of Object Relations". More of an epigenesis than an in depth outline of object relation techniques in psychoanalytic theory. Sentences such as, "Intrapsychic conflict, constituting a nonoperationally definable extrapolation from what can be publicly observed, is by definition excluded" (pg.239), tends to concentrate more on impressing the reader with the gravitas of words rather than simplifying the thought in order to make for an easier and more enjoyable read. All in all, a book that should be read, but be prepared for a tiring experience!