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This little book is not meant to be a text-book, but it is written on text-book lines. The subject is systematically discussed under separate headings. Recognized theories are explained and discussed with arguments for and against. The first part of the book deals with 'Psychology' refreshingly leaving out a good deal of academic psychology which is useless for nurses for whom this précis is primarily written. This part deals with definitions of psychology, instincts, conditioned reflexes, etc., and with personality and character problems. The second part is headed 'Psychopathology'. It deals with the causation of mental disorders, the unconscious mind, psycho-analysis, the Jungian and Adlerian schools, psychosomatic medicine, and applied psychology. The book is written in a lucid style, and will be easily understood. The author has extracted freely from his earlier book 'Psychopathology'.
For the psycho-analyst the treatment of psycho-analysis is of particular interest. The author divides the teachings of psycho-analysis into two parts, one that is widely accepted (the unconscious, mechanisms of defence, analysis of dreams, etc.), and another one that contains controversial material (sexual theory). The widely accepted part of psycho-analysis is contained in a chapter entitled 'Repression and Symptom Formation', but the reader learns of its psycho-analytical origin only from one sentence at the end of the following chapter which is entitled 'Psycho-Analysis (Freud)' and contains a short account of infantile sexuality, fixation, regression, the Oedipus conflict, etc.
The value of a book of this nature depends on its ability to give the psychologically uneducated reader a fair impression of the subject. This the author has achieved, but its lucidity is gained by a very schematic treatment of the subject—of which the divisions of normal and abnormal psychology are examples. It is not quite easy to understand why instincts should be dealt with under the headi