You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The author of this volume, an Assistant Director of the Tavistock Clinic, is an avowed eclectic in the field of psycho-pathology. His chief reasons for not becoming an orthodox Freudian are, to use his own words, 'the many valid and valuable things which Freudians do not accept, not least perhaps because they were first enunciated by those who had seceded from Freud even though originally properly trained according to his requirements.'
The volume opens with an introductory chapter in which the author explains his theoretical point of view and chief technical methods. This is followed by chapters on the various neurotic syndromes and certain of their complications. These chapters contain numerous short case histories. There are also shorter chapters on alcoholism, drug addiction and the perversions. The author concludes with two chapters of general comment and conclusion. Although, as stated above, he is an eclectic who accepts valuable portions of numerous psycho-pathological systems, he has, nevertheless, been able to summarize neatly his own chief psycho-pathological preoccupation in one sentence: 'In the welter of clinical detail, of bewildering complexity, it is good to have some sheet-anchor of valid even if platitudinous generalization and I offer this one: that every patient with mental illness was more afraid than he could tolerate when he was a baby, and the faults in his psychic structure represent the gallant attempts to allay this intolerable feeling by the inadequate means at his disposal.'
Much of the clinical comment suggests that the author's technical method, laying stress as it does on so-called 'nuclear experiences' and involving a tutored re-living of past experiences in the present tense, is forced and artificial. Nevertheless a great deal of the author's description is extremely interesting and it seems probable that his intuitive handling and direct approach to neurotic patients is far more effective than his descriptive psycho-patholo