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The author is the assistant Professor of Psychology, and Director of the Mental Clinic of New York University. Primarily the book has been prepared as a text in abnormal psychology for beginners who have had some training in general psychology. In general the main emphasis has been placed upon two points of view, viz. (1) it is assumed that mental abnormality is a relative matter that must be understood in the light of transition phenomena, or through an insight into the intermediate degrees between more normal and more abnormal, (2) and that mental abnormalities can be better understood when viewed as disorders of the total individual rather than as distortions of special mental processes or reactions.
After stating some of the problems found in the field of abnormal psychology, the text first discusses the “normal” individual, with chapters devoted to the different types of normal people, the common modes of reaction to difficulties and the current concepts of the conscious, subconscious, coconscious and unconscious mental processes. The emotions and innate dispositions are discussed to some extent, but this part leaves much to be desired. More than two-third of the book is given to a description of the mental behavior characteristic of the neuroses and psychoses, the particular attention to the definition of the various terms used in psychopathology.
Case histories illustrating several of the common disorders have been taken from well known textbooks and current literature, and gleanings from the writings of McDougall, White, Janet, and Strecker and Ebaugh are oft encountered. Special chapters have been prepared on sleeping, dreaming, hypnotism and suggestion, and on the feebleminded