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In these two volumes, thirty-six articles have been collected, written between 1911 and 1949. They give the reader a view not only of Dr. Jones's extensive interest in all areas of the humanistic and social sciences, but also of the gradual penetration of basic psychoanalytic knowledge in these fields. Every reader will be impressed by the author's erudition, faculty for clear thought, and psychological sensitivity. One might not agree with all his conclusions in interpreting social and group phenomena, but even where one notes certain methodological weaknesses in his approach, one never can accuse the author of wild speculation. His reasoning is always close and the conclusions are based on at least partial evidence.
It is not possible to evaluate in a summary fashion the kaleidoscopic array of these various articles on different subjects and on different levels—some popular and some highly technical. To the reviewer, by far the most interesting articles are those in which the author uses psychoanalysis for the understanding of individuals (or as Jones refers to it: 'individual psychology').1 Among these—papers on Andrea del Sarto, Louis Bonaparte, Paul Morphy—it is hard to give preference to any. The most detailed study is the last one, a masterful example of the use of biographical material for the genetic and psychodynamic reconstruction of an individual's destiny. This paper has never been surpassed by any psychoanalytic biographer in its convincingness, scholarliness and art of presentation. It throws light upon the problem of sublimation in particular and its relation to the genesis of neurosis. It demonstrates convincingly how, after the deterioration of a sublimated outlet, the same psychodynamic forces may express themselves in a pathological fashion. Aggressive, competitive impulses which Morphy could so freely express without conflict in playing chess, after this sublimated outlet was no longer available to him, had to be dealt with by project