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Up to the present time those who have been debarred by linguistic difficulties from following the gradual development of psycho-analytical theory have found themselves in the anomalous position of being able to study the most recent of Freud's writings with at the most a second-hand acquaintance with important transitional periods in the growth of his psycho-analytic teaching. The appearance of this third volume of Freud's Collected Papers removes one of the most serious of these obstacles. It comprises those clinical records which Freud has published in extenso and is formally described as a volume of Case Histories. Only in a very limited sense is this designation adequate. Unlike so many clinical records, Freud's case-histories are not presented in illustration of preconceived theories; they are themselves integral parts of the development of a science. Nothing is more fascinating than to retrace the steps by which the accepted conclusions of to-day were originally formulated and sustained in the face of quite unique difficulties. More easily perhaps than with any other of Freud's published works can we get into a state of rapport with the working of the author's mind. Simple and masterly presentation of each case, judicial consideration and solution of difficulties, unequivocal presentation of conclusions, each serving as a starting-point for further advances, are combined with an easy knack of exposition, a ready wit in illustration and, when occasion demands, a merciful pungency in dealing with attacks on the foundations of his theory. In the end we are left with an impression of freshness and intimacy which can but rarely be produced by any writer of clinical treatises. If any confirmation were needed of the accuracy of this impression, it is to be found in the fact that the footnotes and corrections added by Freud himself in 1923 refer to a small minority of the findings published as far back as 1905.
As has been said, these are no mere case-historie