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This volume is a product of work done at the University of Michigan and appears to have been written as a Ph.D. thesis (although nowhere is this explicitly stated.) The author's stated purpose is to organize into a common framework those theories of personality which have gained some measure of credibility in their field of application. A systematization of these theories will lend itself better to research and experimental verification. Since the various analytic theories are currently the most comprehensive, two-thirds of the volume are devoted to an exposition of the various psychoanalytic theories of personality. The author uses the chronological sequence of personality formation for purposes of analysis and presentation. Under each age level he subdivides the material under Ego and Super-ego, Psychosexual Development, Inter-personal Relationships and Mechanisms. He analyzes the Freudian, Alderian, Jungian, Rankian, and Neo-Freudian views. Thus this is an attempt to boil down and synthesize a variety of viewpoints. Originality is therefore at a minimum, simplification at a maximum, and personal attitudes weigh heavily in the balance. The author hopes his efforts will be useful in the second step (to be taken by others) of a thorough going evaluation of existing concepts “in order to sort out those worthy of future research exploration.”
His notes to each chapter (about one third of the book) are intended to be critical and are oriented toward the research possibilities inherent in the content. There is also added brief resumes of existing experimental data. The volume seems primarily intended for psychologists. Students of psychiatry will find it a fair summary and outline of some of the theories in this field.
The total impression of the work is that it relies heavily on the study of the literature with little practical knowledge, clinical experience, or personal experience of the analytic process. The fundamental thesis of the volume is a valuable one. The quest