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The author of this book, Dr. Van Teslaar, has long been interested in psychoanalysis, but his contributions have been very few and far between until recently he has been putting forth translations of many of Stekel's works. This is his first extensive undertaking and he is to be welcomed as a new contributor to the literature of psychoanalysis.
“Sex and the Senses,” as its title indicates, is a study of the part which the various special senses play in the life of the individual to the extent to which they contribute libidinous components to his experience. The book is split up into a considerable number of short chapters, it is clearly written so that it reads easily, the subject matter has been drawn from wide and various sources and it is illuminated by the author's psychoanalytic viewpoint. The work as a whole is a very creditable contribution to psychoanalytic literature.
Of special moment should be mentioned the author's quite extensive discussion, distributed through several chapters, of onanism. The reviewer has not seen such a well balanced discussion of this much misunderstood subject elsewhere and feels that every practitioner of medicine would read it to his profit.
Another noticeable discussion is that which deals with the autoerotic significance of certain diagnostic and therapeutic procedures (p. 269). Herein the author suggests an exceedingly important chapter in therapeutics which should ere long be written. The more obvious psychotherapeutic significance of certain procedures such as hydrotherapy are only vaguely sensed by a few. The autoerotic significance of such procedures and many others is practically unknown except perhaps in certain isolated concrete instances.
The reviewer congratulates the author upon his first book and trusts that his promise to produce others will be fulfilled in due time.
White