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This book is valuable chiefly for the first two addresses which exhibit Dr. Jones's views on “The Nature of Genius”. and “Our Attitude towards Greatness”. The rest of the book, though equally agreeable to read, will be of less interest to readers of this journal, since it consists of estimates of Freud's life and work which will be familiar to those who have read Dr. Jones's biography.
Genius is a fascinating subject, and Dr. Jones has not only read widely about it, but is also prepared to advance speculative theories concerning the creative process. He makes the point that the genius must be unusually unwilling to accept current hypotheses; both sceptical and intransigent, therefore. But he also postulates that he must be credulous and points out that these two opposites are found in Freud himself, who was clearly extremely sceptical on the one hand, but who had within him a vein of almost childish naïveté and credulousness on the other, which led him to make inaccurate judgments of character.
Dr. Jones accepts the numerous accounts of the appearance of inspiration as describing a valid psychological experience; and advances the hypothesis that, at the creative moment when the new vision or idea flashes into the mind of the genius, there must be an unusual harmony prevailing between id, super-ego, and ego. The idea of a union between opposites giving rise to something new will be familiar to readers of Jung. If Dr. Jones will examine the libretto of Die Meistersinger he will find an example of how Wagner thought of the creative process which will support his view. Not only does the “Prize Song” originate in a dream: its three verses are compared to father, mother, and child.
One would like to know more of Dr. Jones's views as to why geniuses produce creative work at all: especially as to the part the super-ego plays in the process. Presumably psycho-analysis would regard the production of a brain-child as a substitute for a real child—and indeed Dr. Jones mentions thi