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The article by Kessel and Hyman on 'The Value of Psycho-analysis as a Therapeutic Procedure' (abstracted above) is hailed as an objective and an entirely unemotional report. It is stressed that it was compiled by non-analysts and therefore rare and perhaps unique. The statistical evaluation of 721 cases in 1930 by the Berlin Psycho-Analytic Institute was done by analysts. The report by the British Medical Association Commission was not based on statistical analysis.
The weak points are: small number of cases (thirty-three) and the diversity of the material—schizophrenia to mild behaviour problems Exception is taken to the view of Kessel and Hyman that the analysis is a failure if it ends with a change in the life situation (marital status) of the patient when contrary to the purpose with which the patient started his analysis, even though the symptoms and the neurosis may have been cured. Psycho-analysts feel that frequently the patient's life situation, namely unsuitable marital partners or unsuitable vocations, is the result of his neurosis. It is therefore to be expected that the cure may sometimes demand changes in the life situation. 'In any case the neurotic patient's expectations and demands at the beginning of the cure are frequently integral parts of his neurosis. … Just as an internist could not possibly allow a diabetic patient to demand that he be made capable of tolerating a diet of the patient's own choice, so also is it not permissible for a psycho-analyst to undertake the task of making a violin virtuoso out of a person without musical talent'.