Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/84

 76 BOOK REVIEWS

he has been able to solve satisfactorily his infantile conflicts. 11 these have been solved by means of marked reaction-formations then war conditions are likely to revive the old conflict and now a neurosis is the result These processes are of course unconscious.

On the question of fear Jones discusses the relation between morbid anxiety and real fear. He points out that morbid anxiety is a defence reaction of the ego against the claims ol unrecognised libido. Real fear consists of three components, two useful ones — various activities suited to the occasion, and anxious preparedness — and a third useless one ^^developed dread or fear. It is this latter component that resembles morbid anxiety. He then goes on to show that this part of real fear is directly related to narcissism, and suggests that here we may have the key to the states of terror in the war neuroses.

Simmel states that his metliod of treatment of the war neuroses is a combination of analytical-cathartic hypnosis with analytical conversations during the waking state, and dream interpretation carried out in the waking state and during deep hypnosis. This treatment he says resulted in a relief of the symptoms in an average of two or three sittings. This line of treatment has been carried out by English psychotherapists during the last two or three years, and in a few cases has also been followed by a rapid relief of the symptoms. But we have discovered that the cures are not permanent, in the majority of cases relapses rapidly occurred, and further treatment along the same lines did not result in a second relief of the symptoms, except in very rare cases. Probably when Simmel made his observations he had not had time or the opportunity of coming across the relapses, for in conversation with the reviewer in September, 1920 he admitted that the results obtained by his method were very unsatisfactory as regards pennanence.

Simmel's explanation of the war neuroses is unconvincing and in parts contradictory. He states on page 3 1 that the unconscious meaning of the symptoms is for the most part of a non-sexual nature, and in the same paragraph he says that the war affects and ideas which form the symptoms have a certain intrinsic relation to sexuality.

Though Simmel's article is useful as giving his experience of a par- ticular line of treatment of the war neuroses, yet it has very little to do with psycho-analysis. It seems a pity that it should have been in- cluded in this book, the purport of which is essentially psycho-analytic, as it is apt to give readers a wrong impression leading them to believe that Simmel's methods are included under psycho-analysis. D. B.

What is Psycho-Analysis f By Isador H. Coriat, M.D. (Moffat Yard and Co., New York, igig. Pp. 127. Price * i-SO.)