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Frances Wickes wrote The inner world of choice when she was over 80, and she did so at Dr Jung's suggestion after having given seminars on choice at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich. With this work a trilogy is completed; the earlier books, The inner world of childhood and The inner world of man, were very popular. In her latest book the author intends to show that man carries within himself the capacity to choose in his life those things that are right and good for him as soon as he becomes conscious of the conflicting trends and values in his inner world. This is an art; for Mrs Wickes living is the greatest of all arts; choice is the hallmark of the artist through whose faith and work transformation and unification of a given material are achieved. Mrs Wickes underlines her religious attitude by quoting from spiritual writers, holy books of many peoples, and poets. Jung, however, was her greatest inspiration, the Jung who taught in seminars in the 1920s and who regarded his teaching not only as a method for analysing or as a theory, but as a synthesis and a way of life. Mrs Wickes emphasizes this metaphysical aspect of analytical psychology, and she quotes extensively from Jung's works. She also quotes from private talks she had with him and she mentions two cases of Jung's and the interesting way in which he dealt with the counter-transference.
The author gives many short case histories of her own; they are all carefully chosen as illustrations for her thesis. She did not set out to write a textbook and so her cases are all successful; her child patients are wise; adults dream archetypal dreams which haunt them till their message is heeded and understood, and there is no need to speak about deep resistances or troublesome transference situations. In an introductory chapter Mrs Wickes presents, clearly and in simple language, an outline of Jungian ideas that could serve as a useful introduction to the reader who is interested in analytical psychology. The book m