Murray, H. A., and Associates of the Harvard Psychological Clinic. Explorations in Personality. [New York:  Oxford University Press.]

This is a very thought provoking book and a very worthwhile contribution in the field of the psychology of personality. As the title indicates, the work is based upon experiments carried on under Dr. Murray's direction at the Harvard Psychological Clinic. The purpose of the work is explained in the preface: “the purpose of the entire procedure was to place at the disposal of each experimenter a wealth of information about his subjects and thus to assist him in integrating his results and arriving at generally valid psychological laws.”

The approach used by this group of investigators is original in that each is a specialist in investigating personality, but each uses his own technique. Each personality was investigated by all the workers, and the results brought together before the entire staff. Throughout the work there was freedom in the method of attack and the techniques were revised when it seemed essential.

Dr. Murray has worked for many years on a scheme for explaining various aspects of personality and the first part of this volume is devoted to Dr. Murray's theory. He has initiated many new concepts, but he has made it a point not to be dogmatic in his approach and to change his concepts whenever it seemed advisable.

The preface explains the general approach to the problem, and chapter one, written by Dr. Murray, goes into detail concerning the problem and procedures that were carried out in this study and compares them with other approaches. In chapter two, Dr. Murray discusses “Proposals for a Theory of Personality.” He has a dynamical organized viewpoint of personality which is based upon 25 primary propositions which he states. He then discusses unconscious regnant processes and explains his concept of need or drive and his concepts of press and thema.

The third chapter discusses the variables of personality and gives a classification of needs and explains the various variables. In order to clarify this, a series of statements are given that might appear in