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NATURE 



[June 23, 192 1 



log-ical books of which the war has sown the seed, 

 it is not a mere rechauffe of other people's views, 

 but the fruit of independent and efficient thought, 

 and a solid attempt to advance scientific know- 

 ledge. The main portion of the book, comprising 

 158 pages, consists of a series of lectures de- 

 livered at Cambridge. The remaining pages con- 

 tain reprints of papers written for various 

 journals, which are related only indirectly to the 

 consistent plan of development carried out in the 

 lectures. 



The author accepts in the main Freud's con- 

 ception of the unconscious, and the "mechanisms " 

 of conflict, repression, and so forth whereby 

 Freud seeks to explain the processes occurring 

 in consciousness, although considerable modifica- 

 tions in nomenclature and definition are intro- 

 duced. He accepts also the view that the activities 

 of consciousness are to be regarded as the result- 

 ant of various instinctive forces, but he develops 

 this conception along lines which are partly akin 

 to those worked out by McDougall, and partly the 

 result of an independent mode of approach. The 

 subject is regarded from a biological point of 

 view, and the essential feature of the author's 

 treatment is an attempt to bring the processes of 

 consciousness, both in the normal and in the 

 psychoneuroses, into relation with processes occur- 

 ring at physiological levels, all being incorporated 

 in a scheme of biological development. Thus sug- 

 gestion, conflict, repression, and even such pheno- 

 mena as sleep and hypnosis, are analysed into 

 modes of reaction comparable with those dis- 

 covered by Head and his fellow-workers to exist 

 in physiological reflexes and in the mechanism of 

 sensation. This view is extremely interesting and 

 suggestive, though it may be doubted whether the 

 relation is not one of analogy rather than of the 

 identity which Dr. Rivers seems to postulate. 



The same line of thought is carried on into the 

 author's treatment of the psychoneuroses. Here, 

 again, he accepts the main Freudian position .that 

 the psychoneuroses are due to conflicts occurring 

 between the great instinctive forces of the mind, 

 and that they are to be regarded biologically as 

 attempts to find some solution of these conflicts. 

 With regard to the nature of the instinctive forces 

 concerned, however, he brings forward hypotheses 

 which are open to considerable criticism. He 

 suggests, for example, that hysteria is essentially 

 dependent upon the activity of the danger- 

 instincts, and implies that the type of hysteria 

 met with in the war is the fundamental form of 

 that disorder. This generalisation seems to be 

 subject to the same accusation of narrowness and 

 one-sidedness as has been levelled at the corre- 

 NO. 2695, VOL. 107] 



sponding view of Freud that hysteria is essen- 

 tially dependent upon the sex instincts, and it can 

 scarcely have behind it the weight of clinical ex- 

 perience upon which the latter view was founded. 

 It is to be remarked, moreover, that Dr. Rivers 

 does not discuss the recent work of the Freud 

 school on narcissism and the attempts which have 

 been made to explain the war type of hysteria 

 by means of this conception. 



Another noteworthy omission is the absence 

 of any reference to Trotter's views on herd- 

 instinct, which surely ought at least to be con- 

 sidered in a work dealing with the fundamental 

 reactions of the mind. 



The papers forming the appendix are all of con- 

 siderable interest, although, as has been said, 

 they have only an indirect bearing on the main 

 argument of the lectures. The book as a whole 

 is, without doubt, one of the most important 

 recent contributions to psychological literature. 



(2) Dr. Tridon's book is of an altogether dif- 

 ferent type. It makes no claim to put forward 

 any original line of thought, and its aim is best 

 expressed in the author's own words as an 

 attempt "to sum up in a concise form the views 

 of the greatest American and foreign analysts." 

 It includes a description not only of the doctrines 

 of the orthodox Freud school, but also of those of 

 Jung and Adler, who, although they originally 

 worked with the Freud school, have now diverged 

 from it to a very wide extent. To carry out such 

 an aim within the limits of a small book is clearly 

 a very difficult task, and Dr. Tridon will probably 

 fail to satisfy the exponents of any of these 

 divergent schools. He has, however, succeeded in 

 producing a very readable and interesting book. 



French Chemists and the Wa . 



La Chimie et la Guerre, Science et Avenir. By 

 Prof. Charles Moureu. (" Les Lefons de la 

 Guerre.") Pp. iii -1-384. (Paris: Masson et 

 Cie, 1920.) 10 francs net. 



THE well-known publishing house of Masson 

 et Cie, Paris, is issuing a series of 

 volumes under the general title of " Les 

 Lemons de la Guerre,' with special reference to 

 the experiences, circumstances, and prospects of 

 France. The books which have already appeared 

 deal with the military, naval, and aeronautical 

 lessons of the war; with the effect of the war, 

 immediate and prospective, on French industry ; 

 with alimentation and revictualling ; and lastly 

 with the influence of science, and particu- 

 larly of chemistry, on the war, and, reciprocally. 



