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Stekel continues to produce at an astounding rate, and these two volumes on Frigidity in Woman are another example of his tremendous literary activities. To the reviewer they seem to be among the most suggestive of his works that have thus far appeared in English, perhaps because they are an attempt to throw light upon that mysterious zone,—the love life of woman.
The two volumes under consideration impress the reviewer, as do most of Stekel's writings, in two major ways. In the first place, the author sticks in a most commendable way to case material which he cites at great length, and too he sticks to this material from the single point of view of therapy. In other words, his volumes are essentially clinical and therapeutic and as such can only be commended. Secondly, there are throughout the work running comments upon the significance of symptoms and here and there rather didactic and clear-cut conclusions as to the meanings of certain types of symptoms. These latter, whether one is disposed to agree with him or not, plus the great amount of clinical material which is detailed, are provocative in the highest degree of helpful thinking along the lines of the problems under discussion. Furthermore, Dr. Stekel is doing in this series of works a thing which is much needed in the field of psychoanalysis, namely he is extensively documenting specific problems, —in this case Frigidity in Woman, instead of writing discrete essays about various topics. Psychoanalytic literature has become very extensive