The Primary Problems of Medical Psychology: Dr. Ch. de Montet, Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of Lausanne. Translated by A. Newbold. (John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., 1923. Pp. 142. Price 7 s. 6 d.)

In the light of modern psychological teaching, this is a work which can hardly be treated seriously. It is true that old and elementary psychological principles are presented in a fairly simple way, but the teaching of Freud is almost completely ignored. The author endeavours to show that facts cannot exist independently of consciousness. In discussing independent experiences, such as dream and hallucinatory life, we learn that none of these manifestations are really independent, as they are incorporated in further associations. Psycho-analysis is dismissed in a few words in the last chapter. As an example, the following extract from page 133 will suffice:

And so, when the psycho-analyst succeeds, it is not at all because of the analysis, but because he practises upon his patient, gives him training exercises, generally of a social nature, which first develop the personal relations between the doctor and the patient, and afterwards between the patient and his fellow-men.

Some obscurities may be due to errors in translation, as, for instance, on page 69.