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In the Introduction to his book, the author suggests that it is not necessary to read the essays contained in the first part in order to understand the case histories and the conclusions drawn from them. In the reviewer's opinion, however, these essays are well worth the effort needed to follow the author's detailed and searching enquiries into his theme. They discuss, among other topics, the philosophical definitions of death; Freud's thanatology, which the author fully accepts, and which to many of us appears more credible than the Kleinian postulate of violent self-destructive drives operative almost from birth; the moment of death; and the question whether curiosity about death precedes the oedipal phase. Unfortunately, for reasons of space, it is not possible in this review to give each essay the attention it deserves, but two of them (Nos. 9 and 17) have been selected as examples of the way in which Dr. Eissler treats his subject—that of a true scientist enquiring into all aspects of his material.
The ninth essay starts with the statement that death is the only absolutely predictable fact, and because it is certain it need not be imagined. In teleological thinking, one might say that the ability to imagine one's death might destroy the ego's chief function, to serve as a barrier against the death instinct. Sleep, too, is unimaginable, but it is experienced before the ego has developed, and it may undergo difficulties during this development. 'Only the certainty that the ego will find the world of objects again makes sleep a pleasurable process.' Uncertainty in this respect causes severe sleeping disturbances. In this connexion the reviewer would like to draw attention to the book The Measure of My Days by the South African author, Sarah Gertrude Millin. This is partly an autobiographical study, in which a bitter complaint about her terrible and intractable insomnia is constantly reiterated by the writer. This insomnia had been present since childhood,