You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Mr. Ralph, a nonmedical psychoanalyst, has attempted the difficult task of making psychoanalysis accessible to the ordinary layman, and in many parts of his book has succeeded well. He writes in an easy, conversational style, and throughout avoids the use of all technical terms. He has also avoided the use of the sexual terminology, carrying this principle so far as to make some parts of his book vague to one who does not understand the underlying mechanisms. His illustrations are apt and well chosen to make his book readable and easily understood. Humor also aids in holding the reader's interest. The chapter on will power is clever and very much to the point.
In all of his formulations of psychological principles, Mr. Ralph is strictly Freudian and shows a wide knowledge of psychoanalytic literature.
The chief defect of the book is that in his attempt to avoid discussing the sexual the author has failed to make entirely clear the underlying principles of mental conflicts.
Whether the book will enable persons unfamiliar with psychoanalysis to analyze themselves is doubtful, for the psychic censor does not readily allow the return of the repressed material into consciousness. It will, however, give many persons a glimpse of the vastness of the unconscious and the great importance of psychoanalysis in studying mental phenomena. Its popular style will attract a class of readers who would never essay the more technical works on psychoanalysis. Altogether the book will aid the great work of mental hygiene.