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In these days when every tyro thinks it necessary to write a book on medical psychology it is refreshing to come across one written by an author of the wide and balanced outlook and critical judgement for which Dr. Mitchell is so justly known. The book is distinguished by these qualities and is written with a rare lucidity that makes it a pleasure to read.
We have here a review of the recent history of medical psychology together with the present position of that science. It begins with a faultless account of the school of hypnotism and suggestion about which no one is better qualified to write than Dr. Mitchell. He then discusses the facts and theory of dissociation, in the light particularly of the work done by Morton Prince and Pierre Janet. The rest of the book is almost entirely devoted to Psycho-Analysis and gives a somewhat impersonal, exceedingly clear and accurate account of it. We would especially commend to the reader the chapter on the Unconscious, for we know of nothing better written on the subject than this. His account of the different conceptions that have been included under this term, and his distinction between the descriptive and systematic senses in which it is employed by Freud, are unrivalled. Especially worthy to be singled out is also the sane chapter on the prevention of neurotic illness, from which we cannot refrain from quoting the following paragraphs.
The outcome of a too passionate attachment between mother and son may lead to a similar wreckage of a boy's life. So, also, a too great devotion between brother and sister may lead to a failure of both to fulfil their destiny. However beautiful we may consider such devotion to be, we must remember that it is like the pale and delicate beauty of disease and death, rather than that of health and the fulfilment of life. Absorption in the family is a shrinking from the adventure of life; and to accept the adventure of life should be the privilege and the duty of every human being.
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