Man, Morals and Society, a Psychoanalytical Study: By J. C. Flugel. New York: International Universities Press, 1945. 328 pp.

An admirable feature of this book is the liberal use of nonpsychoanalytic data and formulations to supplement material originating in psychoanalysis. Experimental psychologists are represented by Frankel and Weisskopf of Vienna, and by a number of English and American specialists. J. M. Baldwin and William McDougall are critically evaluated in relation to certain key conceptions of Freud. Extensive references are given to sociologists, anthropologists, and other contributors to the sciences of man, and woven into the exposition of the central theme.

Flugel adopts the same policy in dealing with psychoanalysts, quoting freely from 'deviatioists' and 'orthodox'. One result is a particularly felicitous statement of how the theories of Melanie Klein fit into the picture in which Alexander, Reik, and others receive suitable acknowledgment.

Here and there points are developed along fruitful lines, as when varieties of asceticism are distinguished in Chapter VII. In Chapter XVI, where the 'psychology of moral progress' is described, the following sequences are summarized: from egocentricity to sociality, from autism to realism, moral inhibition to spontaneous 'goodness', aggression to tolerance and love, fear to security, heteronomy to autonomy, orectic (moral) judgment to cognitive (psychological) judgment. In Chapter XVIII the attempt to distinguish 'right' and 'left' social attitudes would have been strengthened by more attention to the relevant literature of social structure and ideology.

The author has picked up Saul Rosenzweig's term 'nemesism' for aggression against one's self, and christens the need for punishment the 'polycrates complex', reviving the dubious terminological practice, originating with Freud, of draping the mantle of Greek myth and history over the concepts of psychoanalysis.

Flugel's work on an important theme largely makes up by good taste and common sense whatever are its imperfections in originality, thoroughness and system.