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This book consists of a number of essays in honor of Marie Bonaparte. As the core of psychoanalytic hypotheses, the theory of instinctual drives and its connection to affects in general and to anxiety in particular are discussed. The book is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the theory in psychoanalysis. The second examines the role of instinctual drives in various clinical manifestations. In the third part, the papers presented deal with the role of instinctual drives in problems of education, social and cultural issues, anthropology and the evolution of human species. In all, there are twenty-one papers. As may be noted from the opening statement, these are all in keeping with the Freudian orientation.
It might be worthwhile to quote a few remarks from the preface written by Ernest Jones, concerning the woman to whom this book is dedicated.
“This book is offered to one of the rarest of personalities both as a mark of congratulation at an important moment of her life and also as a token of admiration at her achievements. Marie Bonaparte embarked on a scientific career with as severe social handicaps as the familiar starving poet in an attic; that they were of an opposite form is irrelevant for their effects. One would have to search far in history to find someone who has succeeded in such circumstances; possibly her own great-grandfather would be the nearest examples. And she succeded not by deserting one world for another, but by shining in both. It was a triumph of sheer personality.”
This book cannot be reviewed as an integrated whole since the essays are of considerable diversity. They are bound together only by their acceptance of the predominant importance of the instinctual drives and their vicissitudes as the motiving factor in human behavior. We still see the tremendous