You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The title of this book gives a promise that is overoptimistic. Even the experienced psychoanalyst undertaking the analysis of a 'normal' person would be guarded in his promises that the process is easy or that it will lead to contentment. The author of this book states that he is writing to interest the normal person and throughout the book affirms a belief that the method of self-analysis which he describes can be applied easily by the normal person to his own problems.
The book is written in an intimate, conversational style and attempts to explain in simple terminology the complicated mechanisms of the human mind. Characteristics of the unconscious are described accurately. Methods of investigating it by free associations, dream interpretation and analysis of symptomatic acts are described and illustrated by the author. In short, the book describes in nontechnical language some of the theories, methods and findings of psychoanalysis. The author develops a system by which an individual may apply these principles and hope to analyze himself without the aid of a psychoanalyst.
The fallacy, however, is that the author's method ignores the phenomenon of resistance. Individuals thoroughly conversant with psychoanalytic literature who have never been analyzed utilize much of their information to increase their resistances.
The author is apparently familiar with the writings of Freud and other psychoanalytic investigators and tries to interpret their teachings for the general public. Up to a point he does this accurately. However, he makes a number of statements which are not substantiated by clinical experience. For example: 'The self-analytic method enables one to acquire greater mental and psychical