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Though this book is primarily juridical and political, the author's broad utilization of psychoanalytic data and concepts makes it valuable reading for every student of applied psychoanalysis.
The author clearly sees the shortcomings of the elder school of natural law, but radically to sever the basis of law from the idea of justice—as was the aim of certain schools of jurisprudence—appears to him as dangerous despite its partial scientific legitimacy, and actually more harmful than beneficial. The author's position can be identified with a trend in jurisprudence—which originated as a reaction against the positivistic and the historical schools of juridical thought—aiming to modernize some of the tenets of the school of natural law. Its founders at the end of the eighteenth century had hardly more than a common sense notion of human motivations. This the author tries to supplement by introducing into that doctrine the body of knowledge of the essential characteristics of man acquired since that time. In search for such principles as might be helpful in this reformulation, he came to discover the usefulness for his purpose of psychoanalytic science.
In a chapter on Justice in the Nursery the author traces the descent of various ideas of justice from typical situations in the relations between brothers and sisters, and between children and parents. Fully aware of the cultural modifications of child rearing, because of the predominance of the constant psychological factors he still feels entitled to speak of the 'immortal nursery'. The nursery is not taken just as a model in order to demonstrate some of the characteristics of larger and more complex groups. 'The same psychological and social forces which operate in the nursery persist in later life in society'.
In describing the formation of moral judgment in the child, the author uses terms which are usually limited to the political ideologies of adults. He speaks of the elements in the relations among brothers a