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In January of 1963 this reviewer, accompanied by Dr. Jason Aronson, had the opportunity of interviewing Dr. Myasishchev, the author of Personality and the Neuroses, who was then Deputy Director of the Bekhterev Psychiatric Institute in Leningrad. In the course of the usual amenities about the need for a better knowledge of each other and each other's work, and for more untrammelled communications between scientists of the Soviet Union and the West, Dr. Myasishchev remarked, with some asperity, that plans had been made to have his book translated into English in the United States, but that apparently publication had been blocked by the House Un-American Affairs Committee. I hope that by now Dr. Myasishchev has received a copy of his translated book. It may also be interesting to note, just for the record, that the translation was partly supported by the United States Government in the form of a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to Dr. Joseph Wortis and that publication was arranged by the Office of Technical Services of the Department of Commerce.
The major purpose of this reviewer is not to discuss the substance of this most interesting book but rather to hail the significance of its appearance and to urge readers to examine it, for the volume does provide, in English, an “in-sight” into a topic that has long been neglected in the Soviet Union (for a variety of reasons), and the treatment of which remains, for most Westerners because of the language barrier, terra incognita-