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In this elegant survey of the history and extent of our knowledge regarding hysteria and psychopathology, Kubie is quoted with agreement: "Hypnosis is the cross-roads for all levels of physiological and psychological organization." The phenomenon of hypnosis, about which Chertok concludes we really know almost nothing, is seen as central to our understanding of all those mysterious gaps that operate in both directions between mind and body.
Although Charcot clearly demonstrated the psychological etiology of hysteria, an area which was greatly expanded by Freud, the origin of this psychic "dysfunction" remains obscure. Chertok considers the concept of an innate neurophysiological disposition and includes discussion of the work of Marty, Nemiah and Sifneos, and Pavlov. For all these workers, hypnosis, neglected after Freud discarded it for therapeutic reasons, constitutes an important experimental instrument for understanding psychopathological mechanisms. Freud has furnished us with an outline of the "why" of such phenomena as conversion, dissociation, and splitting, but "how" they come about remains the mystery. The author's own postulation is that there is a "fourth organismic state" in addition to the waking state, sleep, and dreaming. This is explained as a natural potentiality or inborn mechanism which is then markedly influenced by the individual's specific psychoaffective development.