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This book consists of eleven lectures delivered by Dr. Helene Deutsch, the Director of the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Clinic, to an audience of students of psycho-analysis. In book form these lectures represent a valuable addition to the International Psycho-Analytical Library in so far as the need for a text book dealing predominantly with the clinical aspect of the subject in a wide comprehensive manner had not been met before.
The lectures are divided into three groups dealing with the psychoneuroses, preceded by an introduction on the part played by the 'actual conflict' in the formation of neurosis, and completed by an appendix on the subject of melancholia.
The first group of five lectures deals with hysteria. The subject-matter is in the form of case material illustrating an hysterical fate neurosis, and a wide range of hysterical conversion symptoms. The second group consists of three lectures on anxiety hysteria and phobia, and the third group is made up of two lectures on obsessional neurosis.
The Introduction is concerned with the 'actual cause' of neurosis. The English word 'actual' (aktuelle) has too often the meaning of real or true to be a satisfactory synonym for the meaning which it is intended to convey. In the present context, however, there is no danger of misapprehension arising, since Dr. Deutsch's treatment of her subject enables her to present three fundamental factors in psycho-analytical theory and illustrate their relation to each other and relative etiological importance. These are the theory of fixation of libido, regression of libido and the part