Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/81

 BOOK REVIEWS

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they are, the discoveries of Psycho-Analysis as yet have reference to a portion only of the human mind and are still very far from being able to provide anything in the nature of a complete psychology. Being well aware of the various subtle mental influences that may lead to the loss or distortion of the truth so hardly attained by means of Psycho-Analysis, analysts are sometimes apt to cultivate the virtue of fidelity to an extent that may endanger freedom of outlook and receptivity to new points of view. The lesson to be drawn from Putnam's life and work is that broad-mindedness and a wide field of interest are not incompatible with the most unreserved acceptance and retention of the results of psycho- analytic thought.

The publishers are to be congratulated on the exceptionally attractive appearance and general get-up of this, the first volume of the Inter- national Psycho-Analytical Library. On the other hand, the book suffers from a rather unusually large number of minor printer's errors — a blemish that it should be possible to avoid in future volumes. The book includes a preface by Professor Freud, an obituary notice by Dr. Ernest Jones — reprinted from this Journal — a portrait of Professor Putnam and a bibliography of his writings on psychological subjects. J. C. F.

Fsvcho-Analysis ajto the War Neuroses. By Drs. S. Ferenai (Buda- pest), Karl Abraham (Berlin), Ernst Simmel (Berlin) and Ernest Jones (London). Introduction by Prof. Sigm. Freud (Vienna). (The International Psycho-Analytical Press, London, 1921. Pp. 59. Price 5s.)

This book on Psycho-Analysis and the War Neuroses is a symposium to which Freud has written an introduction.

Three of the writers, Abraham, Ferenczi and Jones, deal chiefly with the psycho-analytic theory of the war neuroses, while Simmel takes up the question of treatment and essentially a treatment calling for quick results, which although not psycho-analytic is a useful contribution to this part of the subject.

The first and perhaps most important fact to be noticed in the three theoretical papers including Freud's introduction is that all four writers have arrived at the same fundamental factor operative in the causation of the war neuroses— namely, injury to the person's narcissism. And further, they have all approached the solution from somewhat different angles, and also without any exchange of thoughts on the subject Each contribution is the individual and independent view of the writer. Communication between the writers was excluded on account of the war conditions prevailing at the time. Abraham was in East Prussia, Ferenczi in Budapest, Freud in Vienna, and Jones in England. The