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The author of this book is already known to Journal readers as a pioneer in the application of psycho-analysis to the study of speculative philosophy, e.g. through his illustrative papers 'The Unconscious Origin of Schopenhauer's Philosophy' (this Journal, 1945, XXVI, 44) and the more recent 'Three Dreams of Descartes' (1947, XXVIII, 11). Studies of this kind are less convincing than direct analyses of living persons but, whatever their drawbacks, these papers amply support the author's general thesis, i.e. 'The statements of a speculative philosopher do not directly express facts about the universe but symptomatically express facts about himself—they form his unconscious autobiography' (177).
This conception is called 'The Psychocentric Hypothesis' and forms the title and subject-matter of the third section of the book. 'Psychocentrics is thus the use of psycho-analysis in the anthropological study of philosophy' (218). The coinage of the new term may not appear strictly necessary to psycho-analysts but the word 'psychocentric' (apart from its etymological suitability, discussed 182–84) undoubtedly emphasises the personal motivation of speculative systems. The philosopher tends to be a psychological solipsist, interested in other people only in so far as they play a part in his world. Speculation is a flight from reality to mentation; a philosophical system creates a world nearer to the heart's desire than the world of reality. However, the author shows clearly that these private worlds are more than simple wishfulfilments; they serve both defensive and sublimatory purposes and the expression they afford to the otherwise inexpressible is not only stabilizing to their creators, but indicative of their unconscious preoccupations. Hence, although the author advocates the transformation of speculative thought into Philosophical Psychocentrics (the metamorphosis of philosophy), he is well aware that it is useless to attempt to argue a philosopher out of his opini