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Dr. Giovacchini has written this book with a twofold purpose. On the one hand, he intends to approach Freud's work systematically, especially the development of his instinct theories; on the other hand, he intends to compare the relevance of Freud's ideas to current ideas. “Current ideas” is a phrase used by the author to indicate his particular conceptual system, which is set out in the preface as “primarily that of ego psychology.” The author recognizes that some of Freud's concepts are now obsolete but asserts they still have value in helping to understand the newest ideas in psychoanalysis. He sees in the works of Freud an early attempt to construct a structural hypothesis: “In some ways, comparing ego psychology or structural psychology to Freudian psychology is comparable to the comparison of quantum or relativity theory to Newtonian mechanics.”
Despite sweeping statements of this type, the author's approach is not totally uncritical. Some ideas of Freud he finds completely erroneous. Most of Freud's theories which more blatantly imply woman's inferiority or psychic weakness are rejected by the author. For example, in discussing Freud's view of sexual development, the author states, “According to Freud … little girls develop penis envy as they become aware that boys have penises and they do not. I do not believe we need to dwell upon these male-oriented concepts. Today we view femininity as having its own developmental antecedents rather than being a vicissitude of masculinity.” I suspect that the feminist movement's taking to task the Freudian establishment has produced effects.
The author also acknowledges some impact of emerging neurosciences on Freudian theory. For example, in explaining Freud's principle of constancy, i.e., that one function of the psychic apparatus is to keep nervous excitation at its lowest point, the author comments, “recent evidence from neurophysiology indicates just the opposite. The organism seems to be stimulous-seeking rather than