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Kardiner has written a book on the basis of highly interesting and valuable anthropological material. The possibilities were great in a circumscribed way. However, what he has turned out, although provocative, considering his position and the current disputes in analysis, is neither fish, fowl, nor good red herring. Psychoanalysis is literally thrown out of the window (a modern tendency), although a few saving paragraphs indicate that Kardiner has held some strong strings with which to pull it back if necessary. Perhaps he has been distressed by new anthropological findings that he thinks put analysis in a dilemma or perhaps he does not entirely see beneath the surface of modern studies in heredity. Psychoanalytic theory, however, had resiliency from the beginning and because it has grown as an empirical science it will survive some of the current blows even as it did some sterner blows in the past. Also, Kardiner seems to have too good a mind not to extricate himself from the morass into which he has been led. When he does so, he will more ably present what useful material he has conceived in the writing of this book.
The work is divided into three parts. In the first there is a presentation of “Basic Orientations,” “Preliminary Studies,” and “Security Systems and Basic Personality Structure.” He says, “The need for coordinating the knowledge accumulated by the social sciences and psychology has long been felt.” “The present essay is an attempt to forge a technique for synthesis within prescribed limits, and on a special type of material. The attempt is exploratory.” This statement of the author's is entirely commendable and modest but the contents of the book are something different.
Psychoanalysis has but begun the formulation of surface defensive mechanisms, although every analyst has recourse to them daily in his clinical work. When this task is carried through, the links to sociology and depth psychology will be more readily apparent. Kardiner therefore justly s