Imago

Bernfeld, Siegfried. The Psychology of Puberty To-day.

Hermann, Imre. Charles Darwin.

Lowtzky, F. Significance of the Fate of the Libido in Forming Religious Ideas.

Bernfeld, Siegfried. The Psychology of Puberty To-day.— Bernfeld gives critical reviews of a number of books in order to furnish an oversight of the psychology of puberty at the present time. The books studied are those of Tumlirz, Spranger, Ch. Buehler, W. Hoffmann and Th. Ziehen. Through these writings he follows the single theme of the attitude toward psychoanalysis and believes that he has shown it to be thoroughly unscientific. Tumlirz, in “Maturity” (Die Reifjahre), shows a sympathetic attitude towards Freud's views, the formulation of the empirical material, however, being more satisfactory than the explanations. He acknowledges that sexual experiences may occur in infantile life where the development is entirely normal, but overlooks the fact that as a foundation of psychic life this infantile sexuality must be universal, and thus misses the essential point of Freud's theoretic assumption. The œdipus complex, the feature usually objected to by writers on child psychology, is rightly described by him and without show of affect. He comments, however, that relations between parents and children need not always be of sexual character and he raises objection to Freud on the ground of his one-sidedness in deriving everything from the sexual drive. He brings a series of examples in proof of sublimation and finds the word sublimation acceptable, but cannot concede that a regular causal connection exists between psychic performance and sexual instinct. He is ready to accept sexuality to a certain extent for the earlier years but for the adolescent, in the fields of religion, science, and art he rejects it and regards these performances as the result of love intrinsically psychic. In Spranger's “Psychology of Adolescence,” the main emphasis is placed on theoretical connections based on values. T