Science and Psychoanalysis. Vol. VI. Violence and War; With Clinical Studies: Edited by Jules H. Masserman, M.D. New York: Grune & Stratton, Inc., 1963. 284 pp.

This volume is sixth in a series issued by the Publications Committee of the Academy of Psychoanalysis, and consists of papers grouped under three sections. Part I, on Violence and Warfare, includes contributions from anthropologists and sociologists and is primarily concerned with the relationship between group behavior and social structure.

Part II, Clinical Research, begins with Masserman's A Dynamic Story of the Homoclite, a term suggested by Percival Bailey 'to apply to my group of healthy conformists'. Although he gives lip-service to genetic and structural frames of reference in an attempt to understand the so-called normal personality, the author barely passes beyond descriptive psychodynamic observations. It is evident that he is unable to get far because he does not apply the psychoanalytic method to his material. Another paper makes certain observations on parental reactions to their children's dreams. The paper on The Dissociation-Association Continuum is purportedly concerned with 'levels of awareness', and bases one of its conclusions upon a misunderstanding of Freud's concept of 'repression', resulting in the substitution of a theory that confuses rather than explains the phenomena. Electronic Computers in Psychoanalytic Research fails to demonstrate what more the computer can tell us than can be gained from the psychiatric interview, to say nothing of the psychoanalytic process. The advantages of 'systematization' are questionable,