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This book by the Assistant Medical Director of the Tavistock Clinic in London plainly shows that the author has had wide clinical experience from which he has drawn freely in presenting a series of essays upon the psychopathology of the neuroses. The material was prepared mainly to serve as part of a postgraduate course in psychotherapeutic theory and method.
Although the author favors an eclectic position, he accepts the basic principles of psychoanalysis including the general etiology of the neuroses as outlined by psychoanalysts. At the outset he acknowledges his indebtedness to Freud 'without whose labors the field would still be unchartered wilderness'. He also expresses appreciation for the contributions of Jung and Adler, and includes a personal tribute to the teachings of J. A. Hadfield.
He is interested in discovering points of convergence among the conflicting schools of thought. Therefore he is impressed by certain recent psychoanalytic writings which he believes tend toward a broader conception of instinct with emphasis upon self-preservative and aggressive tendencies. He is of the opinion that the infantile dread of insecurity and fear of the loss of the mother's love are based upon the instinct of self-preservation apart from libidinal claims, and he looks with favor upon any views which suggest a diminishing importance of 'castration anxiety', or a shift away from 'pan-sexualism'. He believes that Alexander's recent use of the term 'dependence' is identical with the use of the same term by Hadfield who in 1923 referred to it in connection with a description of the instinct of self-preservation. Evidently the author has overlooked the fact that Alexander in his writings