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This is the first of an ambitious series of four volumes in which the author proposes to criticise the existing errors of psychology and show us the way out. In the present book he eloquently exposes the weak points of academic psychology and emphasises in particular its helplessness in the face of the actual problems of human behaviour. 'Le psychologue se comporte aussi bêtement devant un homme que le dernier des ignorants et, chose curieuse, sa science ne lui sert pas quand il se trouve avec l'objet de sa science, mais seulement quand il se trouve avec des "confrères." Il est donc exactement dans le même cas que le physicien scolastique: sa science n'est qu'une science de discussion.' This is because psychology has remained a doctrine concerned with abstract tendencies and forces and not with the behaviour of individuals. The remedy lies in the abandonment of abstractions and the development of a 'concrete psychology.' Three tendencies of modern thought already point the way in this direction, the tendencies represented by psycho-analysis, Gestalt and behaviourism respectively. The first three volumes are to be devoted to a criticism of these tendencies in order, while the fourth will bring the threads of the argument together and expound the outlines of the new 'concrete' science.
It will be well to reserve judgment on the undertaking until the complete work is before us. Meanwhile we shall merely note that M. Politzer approves of the method of psycho-analysis and admires its results, but that