A Practical Method of Self-Analysis: By E. Pickworth Farrow, with Foreword by the late Professor Sigmund Freud. (George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1942. Pp. xv + 153. Price, 6 s.)

The Preface states: 'This book contains a full and detailed account of how to follow a practical method of the psycho-analysis of one's own mind, with some results from early childhood obtained by pursuing it in the author's own case.' Chapter 3 summarizes the method adopted, which is similar to that used by Freud in interpreting his own dreams: i.e. the author substituted regular periods of note-making by 'free association' for analytic sessions, writing down from moment to moment his most fully conscious thoughts. Persevering use of this method enabled him to recover from repression a number of early memories, with beneficial results to himself. It also convinced him of the validity of free association as a method of research and of the formative importance of infantile experience in later life.

There seems no reason to doubt that this method helped the author and that it might well help others, more especially persons whose mental constitution resembles his own, and many of the results achieved are of considerable interest. The practising analyst will notice two things in particular: the fact that the method is limited to the undoing