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This is another of the dogmatic presentations of something related to psycho-analysis for public consumption. It is chiefly noteworthy for
Dr. Brill's foreword—a measured statement of the importance of a study of character—coupled with the Preface by the author. The former remarks that the author's 'method of approach in the treatment of these character anomalies ought to be of special interest to the psychologist, sociologist, and interested layman'; the latter begins with the statement that 'this book is intended for members of the medical profession and for those lay readers to whom psycho-analysis is not altogether strange'. Despite this assurance, the reviewer finds a good deal that is strange and not very intimately related to Dr. Brill's foreword in the text. The meaning of various statements throughout the book is obscure to a degree. This may in part arise from a somewhat ambitious envisagement of well-nigh everything, coupled with a liberal use of the technique 'of course', 'we know', 'thus', 'obviously', and 'naturally'. We read in the Introduction 'from the point of view of the neurotic it seems an injustice that our social life is so organized that only the healthy and the able are an integral part of it, and that the weak are automatically excluded …'
'… a critical and directive tendency in the child himself, which is the beginning of the Super-Ego in him' (p. 10). 'The Id is the chaotic reservoir of all instincts, and the center of all psychic energy. … These three forces must eventually be brought into constant harmony …' (p. 11). 'Proper sublimation is the way through which instinctive urges should be incorporated with the person's make-up' (p. 14). '… the childhood fantasies find their outlet in play, the fantasies of puberty lead to masturbation and continue because masturbation is the introduction to heterosexual life. Psycho-analysts have come to the conclusion that infantile masturbation is essential for the establishment of the gen