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Maeder's name has appeared in psychiatric and analytic literature since 1908. Early affected by Freud's work, he later was far more influenced
by the work of Jung. Most of his theoretical and therapeutic writings get major support from the Jungian school. The present volume is based essentially on lectures given during 1945-1947 at the Zuricher Hochschule. It is one of a series of volumes in which Maeder has been occupied with his main idea of a auto-activity of the mind in the direction of self-healing, self-regulation and self-preservation, particularly in mental illness of the neurotic type.
The first section of the volume gives us his theoretical outline of the neuroses. It is essentially that of Jung, but with far less emphasis on archetypes, collective unconscious, etc. There is little of the Freudian influence evident. There are several case histories to illustrate his thinking. It is notable that these patients required only one, two or three interviews for a cure. He chose cases exhibiting minor situational difficulties. That helps a great deal to impress the reader with the soundness of his theoretical position. Maeder accuses Freud of a purely mechanical-causalistic view of personality with emphasis on the past of the individual; whereas Jung is declared a biological-finalist who emphasises the present situation and the future of the personalities' strivings. Makes it all sound very simple indeed. Phantasy, day-dreaming, play, dreams and “intuitions”, etc. are regarded as activities indicating self-healing and self-preservative processes of a positive nature used by the individual to solve his conflicts. The suger-ego, itself, is regarded as a major instrument of self-regulation. In this there is no question but that Maeder is making some interesting points.
There has been a feeling (overtly or covertly expressed) even among Freudians that not enough study has been devoted to exploring the self-preservative and self-healing mechanisms and processes availa