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The chief focus of Ernest Jones’ second volume in the trilogy of the “Life and Work of Sigmund Freud” are the years 1901-1919. These are the years of Freud's maturity, when he apparently had resolved much of his emotional turmoil and had developed, applied and extended his ideas. Jones was a devoted, loyal friend and colleague of Freud and was the first psychoanalyst to undergo a personal analysis. In this volume, as in the first, he has carefully reviewed the historical aspects of the psychoanalytic movement, and has included highlights from his prolific writings of this period. He has also contributed an evaluation of the man derived from Freud's voluminous correspondence, from personal recollections and discussions with friends, family and colleagues.
The first volume, reviewed by Dr. Jack L. Rubins in Volume XV, No. 1 of this Journal, recorded Freud's evolution from neurophysiology through clinical neurology to psychiatry. Dissatisfied with the conventional methods of psychiatric treatment he experimented with hypnotism. Slowly and gradually he evolved his theory of the sexual etiology of neurosis. During this period, when public and medical opinion were predominantly against him, he lived in “intellectual loneliness” relieved only by his family and friends, among whom Wilhelm Fliess deserves special mention. It was at this time, 1897-1901, that he rigorously attempted to analyze himself. This, as Jones writes, required “determination, courage, and honesty,” and brought him “mental harmony,” “unshaken fortitude” and “one of his most distinctive characteristics: an independence of other people's opinions.”
With the founding of the Psychological Wednesday Society in 1902, later known as the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, groups of interested persons gathered at stated intervals to hear and discuss Freud's ideas. This was the period (1904-1905) in which he wrote “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” and “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.” In this latter work