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This book is in the form of a diary kept by a neurotic undergoing treatment by psycho-analysis. It has been conceived by Dr. Laforgue (as he tells us in his preface) 'to familiarize with the problems of our nature all those who need to know the unvarnished truth. … This book is directed to those who suffer from their lack of self-knowledge. it is directed equally to doctors, parents, teachers and jurists who are concerned for the moral welfare of human society'.
To the majority of those people for whom the book is intended, it amy very well prove more acceptable than many a volume designed to inform them what psycho-analysis is about. The clear and simple style makes the book eminently readable, its didactic purpose rarely obtrudes, there is an almost complete absence of technical terms. For those who need it, there is a 'happy ending', since the treatment is successful, and the patient finds happiness with one whom he can love. There is no doubt that the pill has been well coated, but it should prove none the less efficacious for that.
But, one would imagine, the greatest appeal of the book will be to the neurotic patient, who, so far as he is free to do so, will hardly fail to marvel at the sympathetic insight with which Dr. Laforgue has described and elucidated so many of his difficulties and weaknesses. Nor will he omit to extract some mild amusement from 'My doctor, as always, says nothing' (p. 174), as well as many other similar realistic passages.
Misère de l'homme is too human, too gentle a book to justify its grandiose title, although here and there the theme indicated by this finds expression, perhaps nowhere more directly than when Dr. Laforgue's gifted neurotic (now far on the road to health) declares: 'When I observe the people in the street—clerks leaving their office, typists, workers … all those creatures who represent the great populations of cities—and feel them sustained by their illusions: some with their faith in money and its power to bri