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.
It is natural that many endeavours should have been made to apply psycho-analytical knowledge to the staring problems of the world we see around us. These have been made both by psycho-analysts, such as Dr. Glover and myself, and, on a very ambitious scale, by non-analysts, such as Drs. Baynes, Nathan, etc., reviews of whose books are to be found in these columns. Dr. Alexander makes his essay on a much more comprehensive scale, but in our opinion it is only partly successful. The reason for this can be stated clearly. To be fully successful the writer must be well equipped on both the psycho-analytical and the sociological level. Now, oddly enough, Dr. Alexander's equipment appears to be much more satisfactory in the latter respect than in the former. Not only has he wide resources of information on sociological topics, but he is able to think clearly and deeply on them. As a result he has provided us, if not with very original, still with very illuminating and inspiring reflections which are of great value and deserve every attention from the socially minded. On the other hand his insight into the unconscious does not appear to be any longer as keen as it once was. In this sphere he is fumbling and uncertain and is avowedly content with an almost purely descriptive account of the psychological aspects of his topics. The psycho-analytic contribution to the problems involved is thus far more meagre than it could be.
Let us consider first the matter last mentioned. Dr. Alexander makes the penetrating observation that, broadly speaking, European thinkers are, for reasons connected with their traditions and class distinctions, more prone to lay stress on the hereditary factors in social problems (including the ætiology of the psychoneuroses), whereas Americans, influenced by their more independent and equalitarian individualism, lay stress rather on the environmental ones. It is perhaps for this reason that we observe the tendency among many American psycho-