10 OCTOBER 1931, Page 30

If the need is felt for another popular introduction to

psychoanalysis, then The . Meaning of Psychoanalysis,- by-- Martin W. Peck (Jarrolds, 6s.) will be welcomed. The book is an expansion of lectures given to the Harvard Medical School. It is clearly and pleasantly written, fairly well documented, and in reasonably close touch with the more recent develop- ments of theory. There is a sympathetic portrait of Freud himself, a broad outline of the history of the psychoanalytic movement, and a much more adequate account of the technique than is usual in popular volumes. In his attempt to make the theories of mental conflict and repression clear, however, Dr. Peck labours simple analogies so heavily as to reflect seriously on the intelligence of his original hearers ! The difficulty people have felt in accepting 'the notions of " repres- sion" and of "unconscious" mental processes have not lain in understanding the bare form of the theory. Nor can this difficulty be dispelled by elaborating analogies—but only by setting out the number, variety and high significance of the psychological facts• which these hypotheses, and no other, serve to make intelligible.