Further Notes on the Implications of Psychoanalysis: Metapsychology and Personology-Marjorie Brierley: Int. J. Psa., XXVI, 1945, pp. 89–113.

Brierley complements in this paper a train of thought which she initiated in a previous paper (Notes on Metapsychology as Process Theory, Int. J. Psa., XXV, 1944). She sharply distinguishes between metapsyhology, 'the objective impersonal theory of mental processes and their organization', and personology 'which would study the personality not as an abstraction or bundle of psychological abstractions, but rather as a vital organization, as the living psychic whole which par excellence it is'. This definition of personology is a slight variation of that of J. C. Smuts. More specifically, 'Psychoanalytic personology includes the whole of mental life, the dynamics and economics of the total personality'. Brierley demonstrates the nature and scope of psychoanalytic personology by discussing some basic concepts of psychoanalysis such as motivation and the total personality or reality testing. She believes that psychoanalysis could share in the creation of a Lebensanschauung which would be the effect of an adequate psychosociology. The Weltanschauung of science is by no means static, but develops in accordance with the development of the contributory sciences. Moreover Freud himself in spite of the low esteem in which he held Weltanschauung has made a great contribution to a new world outlook.

Brierley calls the Lebensanschauung which is implicit in psychoanalysis a neorealistic humanism. It is intrinsic to psychoanalytic theory and practice. It can be characterized best by the quotation of her conclusion: 'The neo-realistic humanism … does not open up any prospects of personal or social perfection. It does not underestimate the difficulty of the psychosocial problems confronting modern man. Its attitude is neither optimistic nor pessimistic, it tries to view these problems impartially in the perspective of man's mental and social development. The positive contribution of psychoanalysis is a conception of human nature which not only throws light on the origins