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The first edition of this book has been used as a textbook in universities and colleges for more than ten years. It was, and still is, the best of its kind, poor as that may be. The chapters on psychometrics and sensory defects are good, and the statistical material is well presented. It is a typical product of the school of 'security and assurance'.
For the representatives of this school, there is 'no need to postulate instinctual forces, ids and egos, love and hate mechanisms, or any such concepts' (p. 136). The author refuses to discuss child analysis because its methods 'depend exclusively upon a specialized set of concepts' (p. 163). He does not admit unconscious motivation. There is not one word in the whole book about sublimation, repression, or identification. The only indirect reference made to the Oedipus complex occurs in a passing remark on an article by Graber on dream-walking; Graber spoke about the Oedipus complex; the author uses the 'civilized' term 'mother-longing' (p. 346). His aversion to psychoanalysis goes so far that he credits C. W. Kimmins with the discovery of the wish-fulfilment element in children's dreams.
Fortunately clinical psychology as taught in most of our universities has outgrown its texbooks.