Ego Development and the Personality Disorders. A Developmental Approach to Psychopathology: By David P. Ausubel. New York: Grune and Stratton, Inc., 1952. 564 pp.

Caveat emptor: this is not a psychoanalytic work. The author's professional world is divided into four groups: 1, the freudians who are a menace to scientific psychology—not, mind you, that Freud and some of his followers haven't made some valid contributions to the field; 2, the neofreudians, notably Erich Fromm, who have seen some of the scientific (cultural) light, but who persist in annoying Dr. Ausubel by not discarding psychoanalytic theory in toto; 3, those who have 'taken refuge' from psychoanalysis in eclecticism; 4, the genuine psychologists: Sherif, Cantril, the author, and a few others.

The prime purpose of this imposing work is to provide the rootless, floundering eclectics with a 'formulation of a systematic theory of psychopathology based upon a nonpsychoanalytic interpretation of personality development'. After a summary disjointed slaying of the psychoanalytic dragon, there follows a systematic formulation which consists of a mélange of concepts and terminology borrowed from psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, et al., Ausubel making a valiant attempt to cement the pieces together with many of his own pet 'empirical' terms. He is most enamored of 'satellization' which has eighty-eight sublistings in the index.

The frequent references to psychoanalytic works in the text and their representation in considerable number in the bibliography do not attest, as might be anticipated, to the author's grasp of essential psychoanalytic concepts. The following examples are selected from his less turgid and more meaningful productions.

In his critical appraisal of psychoanalysis the author inveighs against seeing cause and effect when there are only 'developmental sequences': 'For example, both homosexual trends and a marked tendency to distort experience unfavorable to the self are tendencies frequently found in the personality type which is characterized by