Psychoanalysis: Evolution and Development. By Clara Thompson, M.D. With the collaboration of Patrick Mullahy.  Hermitage House. $3.

This book grew out of a series of lectures given for the past several years at the Washington School of Psychiatry in Washington, D. C., and the William Alanson White Institute in New York. In its full context, it is an historical survey and exposition of both theory and therapy, as developed by the psychoanalytical schools of Freud, Jung, Ferenczi, Adler, Meyer, White, Reich, Horney, Fromm, Sullivan and others. Included in the contents of this book are the following chapters:

1. Evaluation of Freud's Biological Orientation

2. Unconscious Processes and Repressions

3. Resistance and Transference

4. Theories about Anxiety

5. Therapy in Psychoanalysis

“It has been the aim of this book,” Dr. Thompson states, “to trace the course of psychoanalytic development, to point out the paths which have led in the direction of progress and to criticize as impartially as possible the theories and experiments which have been unfruitful.” In recent years new trends and developments in psychoanalysis have emerged. As is usual in scientific progress, the new ideas are not accepted by all workers. With this in mind, Dr. Thompson contends that there is a conservative force tending to resist change and a progressive force pushing forward with impatience.

“Splits have occurred and each group tends to isolate itself from others,” she writes. “The serious student seeking orientation in the field finds himself in a state of confusion. On the one hand, deviant groups have perhaps tended to exaggerate the differences, to imply that Freud is completely outmoded and that theirs is the only true orientation. The truth seems to lie somewhere in between. The problem is to obtain some objectivity in evaluating the picture.” Although Doctor Thompson starts out with the intention of trying to be objective, one finds that she leans decidedly toward the theories of Fromm and Sullivan.

The book begins with a clear, concise and organized presentation of Freudian theories, from his earliest to his most recent writings. Regarding