Correspondence

To the Editor:

“The problems of the analyst as an individual and his responsibilities to society are becoming of increasing concern to social scientists. Some time ago in the Bulletin of the American Psychoanalytic Association 6, 47, Sept. 1950, I called attention to the stimulating book ‘The Liberal Imagination—Essays on Literature and Society’—written by Lionel Trilling. Recently L. S. Kubie published an article ‘The Dilemma of the Analyst in a Troubled World’ in the Bulletin 6, 1, Dec. 1950. There was ‘A Reply’ to this paper by the Committee for the Study of Social Issues in the Bulletin, 7, 70, March 1951, and a rejoinder by L. S. Kubie ‘A Reply to A Reply’ in the Bulletin 7, 146, May 1951. The main discussions centered around the analyst as a scientist and as an individual and the question of his identification with ‘causes,’ his concern with public issues, and his active participation in the problems of society. Another group of psychiatrists has been profoundly interested in this subject as was evidenced by the publication—‘The Social Responsibility of Psychiatry, a Statement of Orientation’ formulated by the Committee on Social Issues of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (Report #13, July 1950).

I would like to recommend the recent book by Marjorie Brierley—‘Trends in Psychoanalysis’—published by the Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, London, 1951, which is most pertinent to this timely topic. The author indicates that a more precise description of the title would have been ‘Some Trends in Psychoanalytical Theory, with Notes on the Implication of Psychoanalysis’. This book endeavors to show how much psychoanalysis can help in the development of integrative values, and to present, in tentative outline, the positive conception of human nature which appears to the author to be inherent in psychoanalysis.

It is not my intention to write a critical review of this book. One can obtain an impression of the contents from the heading of