You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Professor Stern's investigation into the first six years of childhood, originally published in 1914 and now brought out in a third edition, gains value in that he has given attention in his present edition to many new developments of thought.
He introduces the subject of psycho-analysis as follows: 'Totally independent of all efforts hitherto described, and also with an entirely new assumption, the psycho-analysis, originated by Freud, approaches the child's psychic life. Here, once more medicine puts its hand to child-psychology, but now—otherwise than in Preyer's time—it is the emotional phenomena that form the chief centre of interest.' 'The aim of psycho-analysis is to illuminate those depths of impulse and desire that lie in the subconsciousness and use as symbols certain outer demonstrations and conscious phenomena to announce their existence. This fundamental thought contains a deep truth.' (Chap. I, p. 32.)
It is true that Professor Stern goes on to object to the extensive rôle played by sexuality in the psycho-analyst's view ('this unconscious germ in the psychic nature is everywhere—even in the little child—looked upon as sexuality, ' p. 32), which leads, he thinks, to interpretations dangerous to the child, and throughout his book criticizes and repudiates a great many of Freud's most fundamental conclusions, yet psycho-analysts will discover that again and again Professor Stern's own observations and interpretations lead directly to confirmation of the former's theory.
The book consists of nine sections, each divided into various chapters, packed very full of material. The first five sections deal with the themes, among others, of 'The Period before Speech' (Part II), 'Development of Speech' (Part III), 'Memory' (Part V), and are the most valuable probably, containing admirable records fully illustrated. Psycho-analysts will find especial interest in Part II ('The Period before Speech'), and Part III ('Development of Speech'). In the former the sub-