Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/101

 BOOK REVIEWS 93

part of Dr. Berguer's book wiich deals psychologically with this personality, remembering that the fruits of the psychological study of Christ would remain of importance, even though Dr. Berguer's views concerning the actual existence of Christ as a representative of the highest degree of sublimation proved to be groundless.

In the first chapter of this second part Dr. Berguer treats the story of the birth of Christ in the light of Rank's 'Myth of the Birth of the Hero ' and also of the teleological and anagogic interpretations associated with Jung and Silberer. While admitting the correctness of Rank's causal treatment, he considers the latter interpretations to be of at least equal importance, and gives two distinct meanings of this kind with reference to Christ: (i) the two pairs of parents in the myth symbohse the existence of two aspects of man's nature and descent — his animal origin on the one hand and his more mysterious, idealistic, quasi-divine tendencies on the other; (2) the overcoming of difficulties and the reunion with the real parents in the myth symbolise the finding of the ' real father ', in the sense of the most complete and harmonious expressions of man's inner nature — a concept which is developed more fully as the book proceeds.

The second chapter considers the infancy and youth Of Christ, while the third deals with the Baptism and Temptation. As regards the Baptism, Dr. Berguer again finds the existence of both material and functional symbohsm. Thus the dove, besides its well-known sexual significance, signifies also the union with the 'Father' (which in turn has itself a double meaning— one, the actual reconciliation between Father and Son; the other, a reconciliation with Christ's own moral tendencies which are projected and personified as the 'Father' — this point being of fundamental importance for Dr. Berguer's conception of Christ's personality). The opening of the Heavens also signifies the gratification of an incestuous desire directed to the mother and at the same time the breaking down of the barrier between Earth and Heaven, between ourselves and the Divinity,

The three temptations on their part, Dr. Berguer suggests, exhibit a correspondence to what are, according to Silberer, the three possible issues of a 'crisis of introversion': (i) magic, (2} dementia praecox, (3) mysticism. The temptation to make stones into breid corresponds to magic, an analogy being drawn here with the temptation that may beset all reformers to become rich or celebrated (i. e. to satisfy their own desires) in order— as they rationalise it— to be able to help humanity the better. The falling from the temple corresponds to fanaticism and loss of touch with reality (dementia praecox), while the third temptation corresponds to false mysticism, inasmuch as it demands a concession to existing prejudices.

The next chapter is devoted to Christ's teaching. After rightly