January 27, 1921] 



NATURE 



687 



at the time of their original inception ; it is as if 

 the repressed idea took down with it into the 

 unconsciousness a mass of emotional energy 

 which, being unable to disperse through the con- 

 sciousness by the normal channels of expression, 

 remained a hidden focus of unrest and disturb- 

 ance to the proper functioning of the mind as a 

 whole. The technique of psycho-analysis was then 

 adapted for the searching of the mind by a method 

 of free association and by the examination of 

 dreams so that the active repression was circum- 

 vented. The result was that the hidden idea, with 

 its emotional attachment, technically a complex, 

 was restored to the consciousness, and the emotion 

 dispersed by proper expression and by the relief of 

 the symptoms to which it had hitherto given rise. 



Up to this point the mass of opinion is entirely 

 in agreement as to the value of the Freudian con- 

 ception, and the method of an unbiassed search 

 for forgotten or repressed complexes by a psycho- 

 logical analysis of the mind is in common use by 

 modern investigators in the subject. Unfor- 

 tunately, however, Freud carried his theory to a 

 stage to which a great deal of exception must be 

 taken. He claims that all these repressed ideas 

 are invariably associated with the experience of 

 some sexual emotion, and by an ingenious system 

 of thought he demonstrates conclusively to him- 

 self and his devotees that all experience is refer- 

 able in terms of sexual satisfaction or dissatisfac- 

 tion. Thus the sensations of the infant suckling 

 at the breast are to be regarded as essentially 

 sexual in their nature ; the affection of a child for 

 its parent is a manifestation of a homo-sexual 

 tendency when it is directed to the similar-sexed 

 parent, and is of hetero-sexual import if the 

 affection be shown to the opposite-sexed parent. 



Much use of the phenomena of symbolism is 

 made by the Freudians in the interpretation of 

 dreams as sexual representations, but for those 

 readers who are interested in the matter, and 

 who may look into some of the Freudian writings, 

 it is only right to point out that a proposition such 

 I that the sexual organs of the male may be sym- 

 \ bolised by any elongated object — e.g. a walking- 

 I Stick, a Zeppelin, etc. — though quite defensible 

 fi|i the positive sense, may yet be quite indefensible 

 [when applied in the negative direction. Thus if 

 [a patient dreams that he has bought a new walk- 

 ing-stick, or that he is being chased by a Zep- 

 pelin, one cannot permit oneself to be satisfied 

 with the deduction that here is undoubted proof 

 of the sexual origin of the dream ; yet on such 

 grounds are many of the most advanced Freudian 

 df)gmas based. 



Psycho-analysis, then, is the process by which 

 all the symptoms and dreams of a patient are 

 NO. 2674, VOL. 106] 



reduced to terms of sex, as/)pposed to the psycho- 

 logical analysis in which due regard is paid to 

 the existence of other instincts, and bitter has 

 been the conflict between the adherents of the two 

 schools of thought. Of late there has been schism 

 amongst the leaders of the psycho-analytic move- 

 ment. Jung states that the sexual impulse is not 

 the all in all of psychology, but that a more general 

 "vital impulse" is at the root of all the trouble; 

 Brill asserts that it is not the sexual instinct, but 

 the fundamenal "desire for power" which, by its 

 expression or repression, is the cause of all the 

 psychological ills ; Freud himself has said that 

 there are other instincts, but that none but that 

 of sex has yet been investigated. It may, there- 

 fore, be deduced that the psycho-analytic cult will 

 gradually lose its virulence and a more rational 

 view hold the field. 



(l) It is, then, with no little surprise that one 

 finds a book such as Mr. Bousfield's " Elements 

 of Practical Psycho-analysis " being written at the 

 present day. In his introduction the author says 

 that it was written so that readers without any 

 systematic study of psychology may easily grasp 

 the psycho-analytic principles. This is a bad com- 

 mencement ; no one should attempt an examina- 

 tion of a debatable subject like this without some 

 understanding of the modern views on the mind, 

 and certainly no one should be allowed to prac- 

 tise the technique without a proper psychological 

 training. However, apart from its aims, the book 

 is purely a simplified and dogmatic child's version 

 of the thorough-going Freudian views ; the most 

 indefensible assumptions are given as undisputed 

 facts, and throughout the book only the sexual 

 instinct appears to have any practical bearing on 

 the matters under discussion. It is interesting to 

 note that the author precisely dissociates himself 

 from Freud on the very point of the acknowledg- 

 ment of the existence of other instincts, which 

 acknowledgment, as already stated, Freud has 

 himself made ; but the crowning feature of the 

 book is the last chapter, in which the author 

 attacks the Freudian acceptance of the theory of 

 determinism. We hope that, for the sake of his 

 own peace of mind, Mr. Bousfield will soon make 

 the discovery that determinism has only a purely 

 philosophic bearing on the question of psycho- 

 analysis, and that a discussion on this point is 

 out of place in an avowedly practical text-book. 

 The last chapter, apart from the rest of the work, 

 makes one wonder whether Mr. Bousfield docs 

 not belong, as do his anticipated readers, to the 

 ranks of those who have had no previous .system- 

 atic knowledge of psychology. 



(3) It is with relief that one turns to a book 

 such as the " Psychoneuroses of War and Peace," 



