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This book is a systematized, comprehensive study for that portion of the medical profession which is not directly connected with psycho-analysis. Such a systematized study has never been undertaken, although the medical value of psycho-analysis has always been emphasized in practice and in literature. Dr. Alexander's book is therefore timely, particularly in America where the psycho-analytic principles have been accepted rather easily.
The author's specific aim is an investigation of the relation of psycho-analysis and its manifold aspects to medicine. He presents his concepts in a simplified manner, making the book readily understandable to those who are interested in psycho-analysis but who have had no opportunity to study it closely in its development and in its application.
There are five chapters in the book: (1) Psycho-analysis and Medicine; (2) The Present Status of Psycho-analysis as a Theoretical and Therapeutic System; (3) Critical Considerations on the Psycho-analytic Treatment of Psychoses; (4) Psychogenic Factors in Organic Diseases; (5) Psycho-analysis in Medical Education.
The first chapter contains a general survey of the development of psycho-analysis and an illuminating explanation of the causes for the resistance against its acceptance—the chief reason being the difficulty of understanding the mental situation of another person. It also discusses the unreliability of psychological observations as a basis for understanding another individual's mental processes because these psychological observations contain sources of error. The author enumerates four of these sources and explains the method of their elimination. 'Psycho-analysis as a Therapeutic Method' concludes this chapter.
In the second chapter we find discussions on the Theory of the Cathartic hypnosis, the discovery of the method of free association, the theoretical consideration and explanation of repression, the discovery and importance of infantile sexuality, the theory of instincts,