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This book is a sequel to Dr Guntrip's You and Your Nerves, which was the expanded version of a series of broadcast talks published in 1957. The author states explicitly that he has designed this book "for those among the reading public who have become aware of and concerned about the grave problem of mental health". Guntrip offers us a scholarly, philosophical and humane examination of the problem considered in its broadest possible context.
His thesis is that fear and not guilt is at the core of psychological distress and psychiatric illnesses. This fear is not so much a fear of strong impulses as of our infantile weakness, littleness and helplessness in the face of an environment which either failed to give the facilitating support we needed as infants or else was positively threatening. For Guntrip the importance of the mother-child relationship lies not so much in the satisfaction of the baby's instinctual needs as in its role of laying a firm foundation for an adequate ego-growth and stable feelings of self identity. Guntrip is insistant that the root cause of nervous illness is to be found in the deep-seated fears and feelings of weakness derived from infancy. He abscribes a crucial role to fear of weakness in the development of the schizoid character. His description of the schizoid personality and its predicaments is both sensitive and insightful. He has a deep sympathetic understanding of these people and their problems and it is just this that he advocates to all psychotherapists.
In the latter part of the book Guntrip makes a strong and convincing case for the wider use of psychotherapy in the treatment of mental illness. The current hostility to this form of treatment in certain psychiatric circles he considers as