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This book is a record of the analytical treatment of a case which was carried through to a successful therapeutic conclusion. There are few literary tasks more difficult than to present a true and comprehensive picture of psycho-analytical treatment. This is partly due to the fact that the changes which take place in the mind of the patient are dynamic, fluctuating and varying from day to day over a long period of time. The result is that a description of treatment which is bound to confine itself to the outstanding and critical periods gives little idea of the day to day work which is equally essential.
The author is bold and sincere in the treatment of his subject and succeeds in illustrating clearly many of the salient points connected with Freud's psycho-analytical theory and technique.
He works out his case theoretically in terms of the libido theory, and shows the effect of frustration and repression of libido in connexion with the Oedipus Complex resulting in inhibition of adult sexuality.
From a technical standpoint he speaks of the need for the doctor treating the case to be free from anxiety, and the necessity particularly in the preliminary stages of the treatment, for a tolerant, patient and understanding exploration of the patient's mind, rather than an effort to cure symptoms. He places the relationship between the patient and analyst in the forefront of the picture, showing that it represents the main dynamic of cure.
It might appear from the author's description of the formation of a positive transference (p. 20) that the patient must be actively encouraged to love the analyst, and that a preliminary negative transference necessarily prohibits the progress of analysis. The majority of analysts will agree that the immediate understanding without criticism, which the trained analyst is able to show from the beginning by interpretation of the superficial aspect of the patient's problems, brings into being the positive transference phenomena, and that a