Written by a philosopher, this book is based chiefly upon the ideas of Spinoza and Constantin Brunner. While extoling and developing these, it is negatively critical of psychology, both clinical and academic. The book presents meticulous theorizing. Backel operates with general ideas, rather deductively applied, which are derived from reading the works of other investigators whose writings depend upon first-hand observational data. It is interesting to see a philosopher endeavoring to create a psychology only by inspection, introspection, and critical review of the concepts of scientific workers. Perhaps this work is analogous to that of the theoretical physicist who never enters a laboratory but is acquainted with experimental work and develops his theories from such work. But the results of Bickel's efforts seem to this reviewer to be more critical than constructive.

The essential idea appears to be, if we may oversimplify, that the