Freud and Marx; A Dialectical Study: By Reuben Osborn. New York: Equinox Co-operative Press, Inc., 1937. 285 pp.

For this book John Strachey supplies a sympathetic introduction. The author reviews in a little over a hundred small pages the theory of psychoanalysis and it is as surprising as it is refreshing to find therein an intelligent and succinct understanding.

The second half of the book deals with a review of the materialistic concept of history. A convinced Marxian, the author very skilfully and at times with very good reason tries to prove that Marxism and psychoanalysis are complementary. On the other hand, he is too anxious to place Freud in the rôle of a dialectic philosopher and the value of psychoanalysis appears to him most frequently to lie in his belief that it could be profitably utilized in the business of propaganda for a world revolution. Whatever use a practical philosopher, be he a revolutionary or reactionary, may want to make of scientific data, these scientific data remain scientific and neither revolutionary nor reactionary. Mr. Osborn is very earnest about his revolutionary convictions but his social and political philosophy makes him too eager a proponent of Freud as a political and social instrument. However, it is an interesting attempt because the author's goal is a practical one and, as a practical person, he naturally wishes to use all means available at the moment. It is doubtful whether his genuine sympathy with Freud adds much to his revolutionary efficiency.