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This book, written by a number of distinguished American psycho-analysts, is a stimulating and refreshing symposium, presented in readable and attractive form. Each essay however tends to leave the reader with a feeling of incompleteness. It is an aperitif rather than a comprehensive exposition upon a particular aspect of the subject of Neurotic Interaction in Marriage. One is left with the feeling that this all-star performance lacks something of the cohesion which a less eminent group might have achieved.
The subject is an important one, and, considering how high the incidence of neurosis is, it is surprising how many marriages do survive, and somehow manage to retain an atmosphere of mutual love and devotion. The essential thesis worked out and developed in the book is that neurotic persons take their neuroses with them into matrimony, and no considerable quantum of such neurosis is shed at the altar or purged at the registry office. Subsequently, the neurotic fits or tries to fit his or her unfortunate partner into the strait-jacket of the earlier objects of his or her past life. This poses difficulties, the overcoming of which depends upon a quantitative factor, the ability of the less disturbed partner to cope with the attitudes of the more disturbed one, and also to a possible cancelling out of neurotic difficulties. If, as often happens, both partners bring neuroses into the marriage, the