The authors of this book set as their task the endeavour to help readers 'to reach the goal of clear and honest thinking', for they believe that the ability to think of 'our own troubles, worries, fears, etc., in psychological terms' 'should permit us to manage our minds better'.

With this aim they describe different ways adopted by the psyche to avoid conflict. The paths so treated, each in a chapter, are regression, flight into action or phantasy, rationalisation, segregation, repression, dissociation, etc. Finally a chapter is devoted to the solution of conflict by sublimation, which the authors define as a 'compromise effected rationally and on a conscious plane'. Their delineation of these subjects is on the whole lucid and fair, but their underlying belief that knowledge of the ætiology of psychopathic troubles can help the sufferer to self-treatment of some sort, causes them constantly to emphasize 'Know