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A striking trend in psychology today leads toward integration of various types of method, observation, and theory. This tendency is clearly reflected in many recent studies of the ego; an outstanding example is Rapaport's source book on the organization and pathology of thought1, in which the fact is emphasized that dynamic
psychology cannot differentiate clearly between processes of thought and processes of perception and memory. This fact makes perception and inevitable subject for research, yet the subject has been largely neglected by psychoanalysis except in Freud's earlier writings and in some papers by modern analysts. Some of these analysts (such as Isakower, Lewin, and Spitz) have studied the genesis of perception. Others, notably Charles Fisher and many psychologists, have been working out methods for studying perception in the individual in whom the process of perception is mature. To this problem Kragh applies psychoanalytic theory.
The book is written in highly technical language. This is unfortunate, for it is a fascinating attempt at bridge building between experimental psychology and psychoanalysis. It is Kragh's doctoral thesis, defended by him at Lund, in 1955. He assumes that personality is not anything beyond or outside of perception. This assumption accords with the theorem, accepted by psychoanalysis (stated by Freud in The Ego and the Id), that all knowledge has its origin in external perception. This theorem explains the composite concept 'perception-personality' in the title.
Academic psychology in the Scandinavian countries today tends to favor Gestalt psychology, which exerts strong influence in Sweden (D. Katz), Denmark (E. Rubin), and Finland (E. Kaila). In Norway, H. Schelderup is favorable to psychoanalysis, but research is not emphasized. Gestalt psychology