Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/87

 BOOK REVIEWS 79

the child ... A mere infant may be as unselfish in his impulse as an adult, with a beautiful abandon indeed which is rare in later life' (p. 75), considerations which were not in question. He thinks that in the majority of children interest in matters of sex is no greater than a score of other interests 'unless and until the interest in sex is stimulated by an attitude of secrecy on the part of adults' (p. 75J, a contingency which, by implication, he appears to regard as of rare occurrence. Represents it as a view of Freud that the 'partial impulses' of sucking, delight in kissing and anal excitation, sadism and masochism become only later associated with sex (p. 76), whereas of course Freud holds that they are inherently sexual in nature from the beginning. But 'in any case it seems unnecessarj' to stress the significance of sex in early childhood' (p. 76).

Professor Valentine is very chary about admitting even ti\e possiii/it}' of the process of sublimation, since he explains most of the supposed cases of it as being the diverting of non-sexual impulses to social aims instead of to the reinforcement of sexual ones. Thus there is no subHmation in art or religion (p. 121). He even denies to educators the insight the present reviewer had credited them with of recognising the sublimating value of sport and work. For him sublimation is conceivable only when a close association can be set up between the two alternatives. Professor Valentine does not realise that this is also the psycho-analytical view, and that we quite agree with his statement that 'anything beyond, of the nature of a side (i. e. non-associated) outlet for an otherwise-to- be-repressed impulse, must be regarded as uncertain' (p. 125). Only he has no inkling of the extent to which such associations can be forged in the unconscious.

Freud's theory of dreams is made up of three equally important constituents: (i) that a dream is caused by the disturbing perseveration of unfinished thoughts from the day; (2) that its sole function is to guard sleep so far as is possible ; {3) tiiat it does this by associating the disturbing tiioughts with an imagined wish-fulfilment, usually a repressed one, in a form that is unrecognisable to the censoring activity of the conscious mind. Let us see how Professor Valentine deals with these three constituents, remembering that dreams are the main subject of the book. Thejirsi of them he states in a slightly different way and calmly proclaims it to be an original discovery of his own which completes Freud's theory (pp. 107, no, in). The second Qne he casually refers to as 'Freud's idea that the dream is often {sic) a means of not disturbing sleep but of guarding it' (p. 105), and he seems willing to accept the idea provided it is restricted to some dreams only and also supplemented by ideas about other functions of dreams. By the way, the understatement of Freud's view in this instance may be matched by an overstatement in another; Amongst the 'very sweeping generalisations in reference