Bergman attempts to study and understand Freud's work on the basis of an original experience or germinal observation which occurred to Freud's creative and rich mind and which then served to illumine the path of development of psychoanalysis. The essence of this germinal observation, which was first made by Freud as he approached the zenith of his life, consisted of several parts. First, a traumatic event in a patient's life left memory gaps which could be filled under certain conditions such as hypnosis. Second, certain symptoms disappeared when these gaps of memory were filled. Third, frequently these lost memories had to do with sexual conflicts.

The author traces the gradual widening and step by step evolution of Freud's psychoanalytic psychology and his psychoanalytic therapy, and he shows how the germinal observations mentioned above were adhered to in each succeeding step of the developing theory and therapy. Although there were changes