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The author first points out that the symptoms of the psychoneuroses are the resultant of two opposing forces, namely, sexual need or desire which is repressed, and sexual repugnance, i.e. inability to love. He
further states that the repressed force has been widely studied, but the other one, the repressing force, we have been 'only too ready to forget', and adds, 'Is it not equally astonishing that the psycho-analyst, while making a very extensive study of the repressed affections, has shown no interest in the repression'. 'Why have psycho-analysts avoided the study of repression? Could it be due to their own resistances?'
The author apparently has an extremely limited knowledge of the psycho-analytical literature and especially that dealing with the theories of psycho-analysis and the mechanisms concerned in it. Freud has devoted an entire article to the question of 'Repression' besides numerous references to, explanations of, and technique regarding it. Other authorities on psycho-analysis have also dealt very fully with this question. Psycho-analysts have certainly not 'avoided the study of repression' as the author suggests, and his question 'Could this avoidance be due to their own resistances?' can only revert on his own head.
The author has made the discovery that 'Repression is a sexual act and gratifies a sexual desire towards one or both parents usually the mother' and that other influences such as religious teachings, disgust for sexual actions are secondary causes merely strengthening the repression.
The author has apparently arrived at this conclusion from analysing (?) the 'repression'. He says, 'In the treatment of psychoneurotic patients I have found it necessary, before satisfactory results could be obtained in the most severe cases, to resort to an analysis of their repression'. His analysis of the 'repression' gave him the following results.
1'Quite early in childhood the patient pleasurably performed some sexual act for which the beloved