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The title of this unusual and fascinating book is taken from Groddeck's statement that we do not live our lives but are lived by life, by the id, or rather, as the author puts it, 'that we cling to the precious illusion of free will, but the truth, revealed by science, is that we are lived by these life-forces in accordance with their reactive nature, inherited and acquired.'
In this study we are led from the author's childhood right up to his recent experiences of life and work. He promises to be natural in his story and he keeps his promise, thereby giving us the picture of a man successful in his search for understanding and embracing life with youthful zest. It makes it hard to believe that he is at this moment stricken down by a fatal illness which he may already have harboured whilst writing the book.
From his childhood, which was one of constant travel through India and Europe, anchored only by the security and warmth of his mother's love, we follow the author into his early manhood as a student at St. Thomas' Hospital. Like Freud and some of his early followers, Dr. Berg, too, hoped to find an answer to his question in the natural sciences, especially from physics.
After the First World War, partly spent in medical work on troop-ships and trains, he returned to qualify, and then entered general practice. It was in this work that he first felt the gaps in his knowledge and that of his colleagues, since it confronted him with innumerable psychological problems for which he had no answer. In his own words, he got tired of just putting his hand on bellies, and he gives us some examples of the problems he encountered. He finally decided to work part-time at Bethlem Royal Hospital to get his D.P.M. and M.D., and then began work at the Tavistock Clinic. Again he felt disappointed with what he could achieve in therapy, and decided to undergo a training analysis with the late Professor Flugel and to train at the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. It seems a real caus