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This book, No. 53 in the International Psycho-Analytical Library, contains the six public lectures given by leading psycho-analysts in England to commemorate the centenary of Freud's birth, together with a short note by Joan Riviere and an introduction by Sylvia Payne.
As an essay in public relations this book is likely to have a great success, for it demonstrates very well the wide applicability of psycho-analytic method and insight, and each contributor in turn is clearly in touch with a responsive audience. To the individual reader, however, the papers will necessarily be of uneven interest, for few of us are equally interested in child welfare, education, art, philosophy, and economic crisis. Psycho-analysts are likely to find the first three papers somewhat elementary, while enjoyment of the second three will depend on personal taste.
Winnicott, Bowlby, and Hellman, who contribute the first three papers on 'Psycho-analysis and the Sense of Guilt', 'Psycho-analysis and Child Care', and 'Psycho-analysis and the Teacher', are all addressing themselves to practical matters which concern most people even though they may also be of professional interest to only a few. The facts about which they are speaking can be observed readily in everyday life and their comments on them represent views common to most analysts. All three papers are exercises in tactful exposition admirably executed.
The three succeeding papers by Milner, Money-Kyrle, and Jacques on 'Psycho-analysis and Art', 'Psycho-analysis and Philosophy', and 'Psycho-analysis and the Current Economic Crises', are a very different kettle of fish. Each of these writers has special competence in an organized field of knowledge, which is essentially independent of psycho-analysis, and each is making an original contribution out of psycho-analytic insight and theory towards the understanding of a problem arising in that field. Each of these papers is therefore directed to a special audience and demands a certain