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The authors of this volume are from the departments of English and Psychology of Stockton Junior College and the University of Wisconsin.
They have turned out a very fine and useful piece of work and the publisher has done a handsome job of it. As the preface says, “The purpose of this anthology is to lead the student of human motivation and behavior to a better understanding of himself and the world through the vicarious experience that literature affords.” They have chosen fifty literary items, some long and some short, ranging through such names as Shakespeare, Proust, Dreiser, Hardy, Tolstoy, De Quincey, Beers, and many others. The book has two main sections, The Formation of The Personality, and Adjustment and Maladjustment of the Personality. The first of these has five subdivisions on Physical Heritage, The Influence of the Family, Social and Economic Pressures, Emotional Conflicts, and The Learning Process. The second has three subdivisions on Dreams and the Unconscious, The Neuroses, and The Psychoses. Each literary item is preceded by ten or fifteen lines of preparatory psychological material. The authors wisely have chosen this method and have not cut into the literary material proper.
The volume is warmly recommended to all teaching groups and those who might find other uses for the volume. It recalled many reading moments of the past to the reviewer. Those who never dipped deeply into English literature and have regretted it will find this an interesting and wide ranging primer.