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Though it treats of aspects of a subject about which a whole library has been written, this very pleasing little volume has a freshness and originality of its own. And while its topic lies outside the direct line of psychoanalytic interest, it is a book which can hardly fail of appeal to those interested in the history of psychiatry, of
medicine, or, for that matter, of the human mind. Let it not be thought, however, that the author's subject is of historical interest only; some of the psychological aspects of the Malleus Maleficarum are as much in evidence in this the twentieth century as in the century of and following the composition of that Dominican monument of perverted erudition. For what Roman Catholic woman today, having undergone the spiritual degradation of giving birth, would think of appearing in public without first having been "churched"—that is, exorcised? Thus the Roman Catholic Church stands firmly behind a custom which is rather widespread among, and one might have thought peculiar to, peoples we call primitive or savage. Indeed, we have it on the authority of Ernest Jones that "officially, the Roman Catholic Church still holds to every element in the whole conception [of Witchcraft], from the influencing of weather by sorcery to pact with the Devil". And surely a very apogee of present-day obscurantism is reached by the learned Rev. Montagu Summers, the translator into English (1928) of the Malleus Maleficarum, in a passage which Dr. Zilboorg quotes (p. 27): "Their objects may be summed up as the abolition of monarchy, the abolition of private property and of inheritance, the abolition of marriage, the abolition of order, the total abolition of all religion. It was against this that the Inquisition had to fight, and who can be surprised if, when faced with so vast a conspiracy, the methods employed by the Holy Office may not seem—if the terrible conditions are conveniently forgotten—a little drastic, a little severe? There can be no do