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This might be called a textbook on basic concepts of psychoanalysis for advanced students. It combines an elementary with a highly theoretical approach which includes many original ideas. Eidelberg has developed what he calls 'comparative pathology of the neuroses' which is a dissection of clinical pictures and of dreams according to six fixed categories: External World, Id, Ego, Superego, Narcissistic Mortification, and Total Personality. By this means cross-sections are made through the different neuroses; not only different patients, but also different symptoms in the same patient are scrutinized and compared. This kind of examination yields, in the author's opinion, a better understanding than long case histories, particularly of which part of the total personality plays the decisive role in the unconscious defense against infantile wishes. The problem of the quantitative relation between the aggressive and sexual instincts in their various fusions, and that of the choice of neurosis may also, it is said, be brought nearer to a solution. It is emphasized that such comparative studies should be made only after the completion of an analysis.
The didactic value of this method is evident. This reviewer believes, however, that the value of the book would be much enhanced if a smaller number of more extensive case histories were presented instead of the large number of skeleton case reports—of no more than one or a few sentences for each of the six categories—giving no confirmation from the clinical material. The brevity to which the author intentionally resorts seems overdone; it makes the reading of the case reports monotonous and unconvincing. The general theoretical idea of the book, however, is very interesting and deserving of greater elaboration.