The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud: Translated from the German under the General Editorship of James Strachey, in collaboration with Anna Freud, assisted by Alix Strachey and Alan Tyson. Vol. XII (1911–1913). The Case of Schreber, Papers on Technique, and Other Works. (London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1958. Pp. vii + 373. £36 the set of 24 vols.; sold only in sets.)

This volume opens with the famous paper on Schreber's Memoirs, 'Psycho-Analytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides)'. According to the Editor, Freud as early as 1895 was writing to Fliess about paranoia as a neurosis of defence whose chief mechanism was projection; but it was only in this 1911 paper that he set out in full his views on the connexion between this disorder and repressed passive homosexuality, involving regression to a narcissistic phase of development. These views were never substantially modified in later papers, but the discussion of them in this paper fore-shadowed a number of subsequent contributions to metapsychology, e.g. 'On Narcissism' and 'Instincts and their Vicissitudes'. The Postscript shows Freud's awakening interest in mythology and in 'totems', here mentioned for the first time. Interest in the Schreber paper has never died out, but has recently been stimulated anew by Baumayer's summary of the actual case records and family history (Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 37, 1956, 61–74).

Next come six papers on Technique, two written in 1914 being included because they belong to the series. They represent Freud's nearest approach to a systematic account of his technique which, in the main, must otherwise be inferred from his clinical papers. The Editor mentions a number of factors that may have induced this reluctance of Freud's to write about technique. Nearly all the translations are modified versions of those published in C.P. II, 1924, but 'The Dynamics of Transference' by James Strachey is completely new. At the end of the series is a useful appendix, a 'List of Writings by Freud dealing mainly with Psycho-Analytic Technique and the Theory of Psycho-Therapy'. The paper 'Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through' contains the first mention of the 'compulsion to repeat' and of 'working-through'. Freud thought that 'Observations on Transference-Love' was the best of this series.

The next paper,