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Following the tradition established by Rapaport, the editors of Psychological Issues believe that experimental as well as clinical studies can contribute to a general psychoanalytic psychology. The
authors of this volume, an experimental psychologist and a gestalt psychologist, pursue Rapaport's unfinished task of 'extending psychoanalytic theory to cover the area of attention and learning'. The entire study is oriented toward the measuring of psychic energy through experiments, an approach originated by Rapaport. The authors were sceptical at first, but at the end subscribed to Rapaport's ideas to such a degree that they regretted 'he was unable to write this monograph himself'.
How far a method, useful in the field of psychology, can bring order into psychoanalytic theory is an important question. An example may elucidate the fundamental difference between psychoanalytic methods of approaching an issue and those used in experimental psychology. Freud produced innumerable clinical examples to show that concentration on a given subject may so lessen the intensity of censorship that portions of the repressed can become manifest in jokes, slips of the tongue, and dreams. From this he concluded that psychic energy withdrawn from censorship is added to attention cathexis. A typical experiment used by the authors to test the limits of 'attentional energy' consists of presenting experimental subjects with a list of numbers or words and measuring the time needed for the recall of the first items after more items had been added to the original list. The numerous experiments, some simple and some ingenious, are scientifically valid from the viewpoint of academic psychology. By borrowing from psychoanalytic insights, the authors enrich psychological research immeasurably. Despite their scanty reference to clinical material and their need to restrict themselves to the economic point of view, they have something to offer to psychoanalysis as well. They present a cha