Twelve Essays On Sex And Psychoanalysis. By Wilhelm Stekel, M.D., of Vienna; translated by S. A. Tannenbaum, M.D., of New York. Published by  The Critic and Guide Company, New York, 1922. Pp.  320.

This book consists of a number of essays by Dr. Stekel, which have been translated by Dr. S. A. Tannenbaum, of New York, and accumulated in book form.

Dr. Stekel is probably the most voluminous of writers on the subject of psychoanalysis. The amount of material which he puts forward is stupendous, and it is supported with a wealth of cases scattered throughout his discussions. In many respects Dr. Stekel is also the most delightful of psychoanalytic writers. He makes his subject intensely interesting, and his comments, his conclusions, and his aphorisms sparkle throughout and challenge the thought of the reader. One cannot afford to deny himself the pleasure of reading Dr. Stekel's writings nor the profit of pondering on what he says.

Almost without exception his approach to the various subjects with which he deals is original and stimulating. His essay on sexual abstinence and health, for example, is a case in point. His general proposition is that there is no such thing as sexual abstinence. The term is a misnomer and has been wrongfully applied to sexual continence, which is a very different thing from abstinence, for the continent individual is, at least frequently, if not always, beset by the most vivid sexual phantasies. St. Anthony may have been continent, but from this point of view would hardly be considered to have accomplished abstinence, for sexuality is not a matter of the body alone, but perhaps much more significantly of the mind. Whereas abstinence in the sense of continence may be a reaction against. eroticism so that there is a chastity of eroticism, there is also, in Dr. Stekel's opinion, an eroticism of chastity whereby the chaste individual not only gets satisfaction from his phantasies, but a distinct pleasure from yielding to his masochistic component.

In his essay on the will to sleep we find the interesting observation that we sleep in order that we may dream. The dream gives the primitive man within us his opportunity to come upon the stage, a