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The famous Digests, the greatest code of Law and Jurisprudence of all times, consist of a compilation of all the important decisions, responses, definitions and arguments, gathered from the works of men of high authority. By the order of the emperor Justinian these were detached from their continuities and arranged according to a rigidly fixed system. After the completion of this vast scheme the emperor had all the books that had been used for it, destroyed in order to avoid confusion and duplication. As a consequence hardly anything is left of the writings of the pre-Justinian jurists outside of those fragments which have been incorporated in the Digests.
Fenichel's book is, in its own, less extensive field, quite comparable to the Digests. It is much more than its title announces—not a mere exposition of theory, but an encyclopedia of stupendous completeness. Everything that has been written on any subject related to the psychoanalytic theory of neurosis is contained in it, in an abbreviated and condensed, but perfectly lucid presentation. It might be said that almost the whole psychoanalytic literature is made easily accessible by this book and that many contributions toward it in future will be at the disposition of every student who wishes to acquire general information before starting on a laborious and time-consuming special study.
Yet, in one important point the technique, employed by Fenichel, differs from that of Tribonian and his associates. He has not been satisfied with selecting the material and combining it mechanically within the framework of a system, but has imbued every part of his work with his spirit, the spirit of painstaking research and scientific clarity.
Although Fenichel avoids entering into lengthy counter-arguments and polemics he is by no means the merely passive mouthpiece of the opinions of other psychoanalysts. By arranging them in a coherent and logical sequence, by comparing and sifting them and by interspersing them with his