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Strupp succeeds in compressing much information on Freud and psychoanalysis within the pages of his book, without, at the same time, doing essential damage to the panorama of the Freudian landscape. This, to my mind, is an accomplishment.
The book appears to be written with a lay reader in mind, or perhaps someone who takes a survey course in the history of ideas. Strupp serves both of these well, for he is brief and to the point without dallying too long on the subtleties that concern the professional and the scholar. I believe the book would serve equally well the newcomer clinician—graduate students in the social sciences, first year residents in psychiatry, etc.—those, namely, who need some kind of comprehensible map they can memorize and understand, before they engage themselves fully in the intricacies of the Freudian approach.
Strupp states his intention in the Preface of the book:
One can learn about psychoanalytic theory as one can learn about any other theory, that is, through one's intellect. However, a genuine understanding of the subject matter can only be acquired through one's experience as a patient … Thus, to adapt one of Freud's metaphors, a book on psychoanalytic psychology can be no more satisfying in a deep sense than a printed menu can be a substitute for a meal. The most a menu can do is whet one's appetite, and hopefully this little book will succeed in stimulating the reader to want to know more.
I believe Strupp succeeds in this intention, and admirably so if we consider the limitation of space (101 pp.), and the resulting modest price-tag (£1.25). (The realistic author remembers that nowadays not all students are wealthy!)
The nine chapters in the book include the to-be-expected discussions of mental apparatus, stages of personality development, psychodynamics, dream theory, and neurotic conflicts—all of which are covered adequately enough for the newcomer to find his bearings in the Freudian universe.
The author also devotes a chapter to transf