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The main purpose of this book is stated to be 'to enable the general reader to obtain such insight into the hidden processes of the mind that he may be able to exercise more effective control over his life' (p. 107) and it may be said at once that the author has succeeded in his aim. Nearly all the book is, as the title indicates, taken up with an exposition of psycho-analysis, on the whole a reliable one; but it differs from expositions such as those of Hitschmann or Barbara Low in two respects. On the one hand it shews the deficiencies inseparable from a presentation by a writer who is familiar with the phenomena of the unconscious only up to a certain point; he relates, for instance, some 'everyday' blunders of his own of the full implications of which he is evidently unaware. On the other hand, the presentation is much more subjective than that of the other authors mentioned. It may be described rather as a sympathetic criticism, of the kind of which psycho-analysis is certainly in need. Being himself an 'orthodox psychologist', Mr. Hingley finds that some of the formulation devised by Freud is open to criticism, though he never questions the accuracy of either his findings or his conclusions. Towards the end of the book he becomes still more individual in his tendencies, though he quite fairly says in his preface: 'The last two chapters, and especially the last, should be regarded rather as speculative essays in application. They should not be regarded as practical programmes to which psycho-analysis is in any way committed'.
He starts by contrasting with the older psychology what he considers to be the three new movements of the last forty years. The first of these is the work of what is here termed the 'subconscious' school. The author does not seem to be too well informed on this topic, else