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Dr. Calwell has here made the effort to take up an unbiassed attitude to the Freudian psychology, but he has not succeeded in penetrating deep enough to grasp the essential truths of the principles involved in psycho-analysis.
He states that Freud conforms to scientific requirements in the methods of his work, that he has collected an enormous number of facts, and has constructed and named laws to explain these facts. The question he asks is, Do these facts bear the interpretation Freud puts upon them?
It is pointed out that Freud is strictly deterministic in his attitude to mind, and that he pushes this to its utmost logical conclusions. In regard to heredity Freud's attitude that ontogeny epitomises phylogeny in the psyche as well as anatomically is supported by his findings. In discussing the theory of the unconscious an effort is made to correlate the development of the higher centres in the brain with inhibitions of the primitive impulses psychologically. Thus repression develops and conflict is but a step.
Freud's explanation of dreams, however, raises the author's scepticism to its zenith. To him Freud's methods do not seem scientific, and it is highly improbable that the young human mind can possess all the 'symbolism' paraphernalia supposed to be formed there. On the other hand, he admits that the conduct and words of a young lady most carefully brought up, under the influence of an acute psychosis, reveal possibilities which may well make us hesitate to deny the possibility of Freud's assertions.