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And the exegesis continues. Out of 189 pages of text there is a total of about 51 pages of quotations amounting to a ratio of 2.7:1. At least three long quotes appear twice and the nonquotes are even much more repetitious.
Schur finds contradictions and ambiguities in Freud's discussions of the id, the system Ucs. and the primary process. He attributes this confusion to Freud's starting “his formulations … with observations, while his theory had to start ‘from scratch'” (p. 55). The distinction between “formulations” and “theory” remains “ambiguous.” Concerning the “start ‘from scratch'” the author himself seems to ignore the work by Harms, Holt, this reviewer and others in tracing Freud's thought to predecessors.
Perhaps the most striking feature of this book are the omissions. The tension reduction theory is discussed without contrasting it with findings from sensory and social deprivation experiments, which indicate a need for optimal rather than minimal stimulation. Avoidance of intensive stimulation is accepted as a general aim without discussion of the seeking of intense stimulation not only in foreplay and sexual intercourse but also in various kinds of thrills, some of which present a serious social problem today. “The need to recreate any situation of satisfaction” (p. 143) is never questioned in the light of both naturally and experimentally observed tendencies of the organism to seek changed stimulation, new situations of satisfaction and mere variety of experience.
It is unfortunate that the writer does not offer any case material to support or refute the constructs he discusses; the book does not contain a single reference to the author's analytic experience in his many years of practice.
The talmudic exercise remains entirely theoretical. On the basis of selected passages from Freud, Hartmann and a few other psychoanalysts, an ego-id continuity is established. The id is shown to have content, to be structural and to undergo genetic development; pleasure an