Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/72

 64 BOOK REVIEWS

phallic or erotic significance, it seems worth while to publish illu- strations of such things having an actual phallic value. These same thinkers, who would refer to the asocial sexual cravings as "bestial", seem to be too prejudiced to recognize that the bestialness might be expressed by the image of a beast, and, conversely, the sacredness of socially approved love by beautiful images of many varieties' {p. 19). Since the days of the Salpctriere Iconographie there has been nothing in the literature of clinical psychology to compare wilh these wonderful illustrations, which are certainly the most striking feature of the book.

One turns with interest to the matter of the actual analyses and interpretations offered by Dr. Kempf, but the result is rather disappoint- ing. On the whole the case-histories are not much more than detailed anamneses from mainly conscious material, and the strictly analytic side is distinctly weak. Here and there sharp insight is shewn, as, for in- stance, where he traces delusions of poisoning to the sexual value of food conditioned by the sucking experiences of infancy (p. 91), but on the other hand there are only too many examples — such as the conclusion that cravings to steal are 'often caused by the erotic affect trying to get further excitation in order lo become potent enough to obtain gratification' {p. 732) — where adherence to theory has evidently been more attractive than actual investigation.

In psychotherapy Dr. Kempf proclaims himself an unhesitating ad- herent of the psycho-analytic method, in spite of tlie remark that it 'has not, however, been used long enough to justify absolute confidence in its capacity to effect permanent cures' (p, 733); we wonder what surgical method would not be satisfied with the period of twenty-five to thirty years. He gives no account of technique, perhaps wisely, and refers the reader for instruction in it to the works of Freud, Jung, Piister and Jelliffe, an astonishing selection that tells one a great deal about Dr. Kempf.

Special attention should be called to the excellent remarks on the subject of heredity and transmission {pp. 80, 117, etc.); Dr. Kempf refers to cases where the transmission of neurotic reactions could be traced through four generations, each one infecting the next one afresh in the way now familiar to psycho-analysts.

Mention should also be made of interesting analytic studies of Bootb, Guiteau and Czolgosz, the assassins of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley respectively {pp. 439-448), of the Christ myth apropos of Michel Angelo's 'Pietk' l^. 565), and of Darwin's neurosis {pp. 208-251). In the last of these, by the way, there occurs a revealing passage in- dicating that Dr. Kempf is in the well-known second phase ol the assimilation of a new theory: he quotes the following very general re- mark of Darwin's 'I felt convinced that the most complex and fine shades of expression must all have had a gradual and natural origin '

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