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It can justly be said of Schilder that he explored the problems of the body-mind relationship more fully and more persistently than any of his contemporaries. His vast knowledge in many fields, including psycho-analysis, made him the ideal integrator.
In this book two series of lectures are presented. The first, on the psychological aspects of cerebral neuropathology, was given to the Washington Psycho-analytic Group; the second, on neuropsychiatric aspects of the motility of schizophrenics, to the staff of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Institute. Both series were given in 1928 and 1929 in Schilder's first year in the U.S.A. as a visiting member of Professor Adolf Meyer's staff. This book was previously published in 1931 as No. 53 of the Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series.
To Schilder the main purpose of a lecture was not to transmit information but to stimulate thought. His listeners felt themselves in the presence of a fertile mind thinking aloud. He was not much concerned with the art of exposition and unashamed of the imperfections of knowledge. The lectures here collected reflect Schilder's manner of teaching very well. The first series is entitled 'Studies in the Psychological Aspects of Cerebral Neuropathology'. The first lecture deals with sleep and consciousness. This and the following chapters contain many illustrations of the mutual influence of organic and psychic processes. In 'Problems of Tonus' the rôle of the vestibular apparatus in the building-up of the body scheme and the effects of abnormal vestibular stimuli on consciousness and dreams are discussed. The third lecture deals with the psychopathology of encephalitis and the types of regression observed in neuroses and in cases with brain lesions. Regression is regarded as always due to the same basic mechanism taking place on various levels of integration. Brain lesion and mental conflict result in similar types of behaviour disorder. In visual agnosia and aphasia the primary