Memoirs of my Nervous Illness: By Daniel Paul Schreber. Translated, edited, with introduction, notes and discussion, by Ida Macalpine and Richard A. Hunter. (London: Wm. Dawson & Sons, 1955. Pp. 416. 35 s.)

Macalpine and Hunter have rendered a valuable service in furnishing a competent and carefully edited translation of Schreber's famous memoirs which played such an important part in the history of psycho-analysis. They are critical of some of Freud's interpretations and do not share his views on the etiological significance of the conflict over

homosexuality. They stress the importance of pregenital factors in the origin of the psychosis. They do not accept the concept of transference as evolved by Freud. They interpret Schreber's psychosis as 'a reactivation of unconscious archaic procreation fantasies concerning life, death, immortality, rebirth, creation including self-impregnation, and accompanied by absolute ambisexuality expressed in doubts and uncertainty about his sex'. In their view homosexual anxieties were secondary to the fantasy of having to be transformed into a woman. They believe Schreber's psychosis to have been precipitated by his wife's childlessness which reactivated his unconscious procreation fantasies.

Whatever we may think about the translators' views, we shall agree with them that Freud's interpretation should not be taken as the last word on the origin of paranoid illness.