THE RENAISSANCE OF PSYCHOLOGY 



in which parent-child relation leads to tangled complexes; 

 genital details, sexual threats, traumas, perversions, invade 

 the normal course. As a consequence the psychoanalytic 

 procedure makes later neuroses the issues of such incidents 

 and seeks their unmasking. Both as principle and practice, 

 this phase may be rejected as a speculative and a cultist 

 development, unfortunately appealing to a popular vogue, 

 and catered to by disciples lacking a sober logical training. 

 There remains a core of doctrine that, once separated from 

 its extravagant deductions, may be assimilated with pro- 

 gressive psychology. As for the treatment of mental 

 disorder, a sound psychiatry is not disturbed by a school 

 of practitioners claiming exclusive jurisdiction in the name 

 of an innovator in one branch. 



The correction of the Freudian doctrine has proceeded by 

 way of rival dissensions. Jung is clearly the master mind 

 in the psychoanalytic movement, and is sensitive to its 

 philosophical and cultural implications. He introduced an 

 experimental technique in the detection of complexes by 

 delayed, peculiar, and distorted associations; he set forth 

 that the will to power and self-expression is a far more 

 pervasive and dominant motive than sex alone. He is 

 devoted to symbolism even more than Freud, but defends 

 it as a literary embodiment of psychic elaboration. The 

 effect on practice is not distinctive, though it leads to a 

 more liberal diagnosis. Alfred Adler finds a single clue to 

 life adjustment in the avoidance of an inferiority feeling. 

 A dominant mechanism is compensation. He advocates an 

 acceptable form of psychoanalysis, since adjustment pro- 

 ceeds in terms of the total personality. Jung calls his 

 system "analytical," Adler styles his method "individual" 

 psychology. The intelligibility of the Adlerian procedure 

 brings it nearer to the common-sense approach, but adds 

 little to its scientific status. It readily falls to the level of an 

 eclectic, somewhat evangelical guidance. 



[75] 



