Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/144

 136 BOOK revie:ws

The choice of the title, "Anxiety Hysteria", is unfortunate and misleading. Freud coined this term for a given purpose to describe a particular syndrome. The authors apply this term of Freud's to cover conditions for which it was never intended, and they also quote other terms which they state arc used for the same condition. It would amount to the same thing if someone wrote a book entitled, "I^iralysis Agitans", and stated that in using this term he included all forms of tremor, and such terms as psycho-neurosis, anxiety state, etc. were sometimes used for the same condition. Such methods do not tend to clarify the already chaotic state of thought with regard to the functional neuroses, but only lead further into the morass.

It is to be noticed that the authors still adhere to the old term subconscious, and they state that there is no hard and fast line between it and the conscious. This is certainly opposed to the modern trend of thought among psychologists, who, since Freud built up his theory of mental functioning, arc tending more and more to adopt his nomen- clature of conscious and unconscious and the precise meanings he attaches to them.

On page 13, the authors mention the "golfer's golf complex"; the term complex according to its present usage in psychology refers to a group of ideas dissociated from the personality and which are emot- ionally toned, so it cannot apply in this case to the above "complex" ; constellation would have been the correct term.

The authors state on page 43, that the repression of the instinct of self-preservation is the commonest cause of all psycho-neuroses, both war and civil. There is no evidence at present that the instinct of self-preservation is ever in a state of repression, and until this is forth- coming the authors' statement is rendered useless. If it is to be sup- posed that what they really mean is self-love and not self-preservation, two very different things, then their statement would have a certain degree of truth in it.

The authors' line of treatment of their so-called anxiety hysteria appears to be a resuscitation of forgotten memories, followed by explanations that these are the manifestations of the instinct of self- preservation. The authors claim satisfactory results from this method, but the permanence of cures of this nature is still an open question, for in this respect there is a great divergence of opinion.

Exception must certainly be taken to the autliors' remarks on dreams, page 103, Firstly, Freud has never maintained, as is here falsely stated, that all dreams rest on a sexual basis. Secondly, Freud and his followers have always maintained that Ihe interpretation of dreams is only to be arrived at through the free associations of the dreamer. It is somewhat of a presumption on the part of the authors to take Freud's method of interpretation as though they had come to it

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