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The purpose of this book is to show that 'there is no real conflict between the new psychology and Christianity. Psycho-analysis has merely added the weight of its evidence to the eternal truths originally revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus'. This conclusion will come as a startling novelty to psycho-analysts, who will wonder how they could have overlooked such a surprising effect of their researches. Whatever else one may say about this book, however, one cannot accuse its author of losing sight of his object; he has followed it unswervingly at any cost to logical consistency and clear terminology.
The book shows the faults common to arguments that must reach a pre-determined conclusion. The author's premises are his conclusions and consist of an unquestioned acceptance of Christian theology together with the perfection of the ideals of Jesus Christ. These premises are not examined in the light of any new psychology; Dr. Barbour's interest in psychology is limited to demonstrating the essential similarity between sin against God, which consists in separation from Him, and psychic evil, which is lack of harmony in the self.
The author's presentation is extremely ingenious, and is a good illustration of the disarming way in which a certain school of psychologists have managed to nullify the essential nature of the unconscious by making an apparently impartial selection and mixing of the so-called 'truths' presented by the different schools. To quote the author: 'A more reasonable psychology has been developed under W. H. R. Rivers in England, and Morton Prince and William McDougall in the United States. … It is an eclectic metapsychology built upon the foundations of Janet and Freud, but using in its construction the contributions of Jung, Adler, and Steker, as well as the social theories of Trotter and McDougall. … It is here that the future of psychology rests. Here is no fanaticism, no suiting of new developments to old theories, no bigotry, no li