Freud: The Mind of the Moralist: By Philip Rieff. New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1959. 397 pp.

In spite of Freud's statement that he had not really been interested in medicine, and that his real and original love had been the philosophical approach to man's state, he was nevertheless a physician, and his method and theory grew out of therapeutic aspirations. His psychoanalytic substrate was biology—even up to his final theory of the instincts.

This volume is one of several1 which have recently appeared aiming at a critique of Freud and psychoanalysis from the standpoint not only of the validity of the body of theory itself, but also from the standpoint of cultural change, morals, and the varying philosophies which grew out of the struggles incident to historical change. These are critiques by humanist scholars, not psychoanalysts, versed in the historical development of ideas, culture, and religion. It is remarkable how much these critiques are occupied with problems of religion. The specific avowed intent of the book under review is to study Freud's moral position and personal bias as reflected in the theory and directions of theory of psychoanalysis.