Miss R.—and Others Problems of Neurosis. By Alfred Adler. (Kogan

Paul. 8s. 6d.) A WOMAN of no particular talents and of ordinary station found herself in the grip of a neurosis. She was afraid of breaking mirrors—so afraid that she dared not touch one and was in agony if she saw someone else touch one. She was afraid of infectious diseases ; she could not bring herself to handle plate, cup, fork or knife, articles of furniture, or any- thing at all which, by the most fantastic chance, might have been contaminated :— " Thus I sat like Cinderella in the corner of the kitchen, on my broken chair with the rusty nails—in front of me all the things whose mere presence seemed pernicious to me, all the objects bewitched by the touch of residents of those execrated districts and streets : outside the gutter drains, streets, houses, lamp-posts, coffee-restaurants, trams and shops all threatening with their wicked magic. Danger, mischief, misfortune were dogging my steps."

Finally this woman, Miss R., wrote out the story of her life, and sent it to Dr. Alfred Adler, the founder of the Society for Individual Psychology. Dr. Adler took it with him to his lecture room, opened it there•, and read it aloud, trying to get a grip of the case as he went on, giving his comments, making his conjectures, without knowing anything more of Miss R. than his audience. His lectures were taken down, and are now translated into English in The Case of Miss R.

There could hardly be a better introduction to the study of Individual Psychology as it is applied in practice. Let us quote from the beginning of Miss R.'s story to illustrate Dr. Adler's method :— "I remember that father frequently asked me . . It is worth while enquiring : why not the mother ? ` Father ' has a special significance. This child, a girl, was much more strongly attached to her father than to her mother. What does that mean ? . .

Do you feel well? Does anything hurt you ?' Her father must have been an extraordinarily soft, weak man, and the child must have been a very spoiled child. We infer that this girl will always see to it that she is pampered. She will always be the centre of attraction, and she will constantly try to draw attention to herself. Difficulties arise as soon as such a child comes in contact with other persons who do not give her the same atten- tion. In such a case we find a strong tendency to reject, an aversion to strangers, a critical attitude towards and lack of interest in other persons."

Dr. Adler's conjectures are soon confirmed by Miss R.'s account. " At times," she writes, " I heard my father say that he would commit suicide if anything were to happen to me." And she herself confesses that " on account of my sickly constitution everyone was submissive to me." With Dr. Adler's comments we begin to see how natural it will be for this child to put a high value on sickness, to feel that it is only by sickness that she can be beloved and safe and able to dominate her surroundings. She has already ehosen her way of meeting new situations. If anything difficult occurs,

she will meet it by being nervous and frightened, by being unable to do anything for herself ; for that was the reaction by which she was most sure of her father's support.

Miss R. develops her story. We see her grow out of her touchy and delicate childhood, always rather sorry for herself, jealous of the attentions given to anyone else, taking up the role of peacemaker between her father and mother because she could not bear that their interest should be diverted from herself. In many ways she is a pleasant and ordinary child ; she even has some special gifts for mimicry and acting. But how poorly she is being equipped for the time when she must rely on her own resources, when she must be grown-up and independent !

Her parents are not rich. She wishes her father was some- thing grander, but in plain fact he is a tailor. This means that she must try to make her own living. There are the problems of sex before her ; and to solve those problems a good deal Of courage and confidence is needed. She is not at all good at making friendships ; she only counts those people real friends who will do exactly as she wants them to do. Outside her own home she can find no one quite so subservient. The more those crises approach her—the need to find some socially useful work, the need to meet problems of sex in a genuine and fruitful way, the need to enter into relations with her fellow- beings and her equals—the more she is frightened ; the more she turns back to her own home, the people she knows best, the people she can most readily control.

That is why she begins to fear streets and trams and shops. Her fears tell her : " You are safe only at home ; don't step out into the market place ; don't venture into the world." That is why she begins to fear disfigurement, the loss of her teeth, the weakening of her eyes. Her fears tell her : " You can never get married ; you are not beautiful enough. Because of this you must leave the questions of sex unsolved." She makes half-hearted attempts to get work ; but at the end of the first day at a new job she always finds herself tired out.

Her head aches ; her digestion troubles her. She is warning

herself, " Stay at home. Anything else is too difficult for you." Yet her fears, of course, cause her a very-real agony. Her life is as impoverished as it well could be. She is trying

not to live, for living needs courage. The outer world never continues to pamper this child.

What is the end of this story ? At the time of his lectures Dr. Adler himself could say nothing. The book ends with the following comment :—

" Just as every step into a neurosis inevitably destroys courage, every step out of it builds up courage and with it strengthens social feeling. And that is in accord with what I have heard about the writer of this story : namely, that in so far as she has been able to help herself without the aid of a psychologist she has freed herself of her compulsion neurosis, and is taking courageous steps to solve her difficult life problems. I shall leave it to the imaginative powers of my readers, to their psychological understanding and intuition, to divine how."

The sub-title of Problems of Neurosis describes it as a "book of case histories." Here Dr. Adler discusses common difficul- ties in meeting life, with a great number of illustrations drawn from his experience as a psychologist. " Every neurotic," he remarks, " is partly in the right." Yet, at the same time, every neurotic is making quite avoidable mistakes. The very foundation of the neurotic error is the life-long substitution of the " Will to Seem " for the " Will to Be " : the desire to be thought eminent, to be thought unique, to be thought a Somebody rather than to act and receive the consequences of action. In Dr. Adler's view, as in Nietzsche's, the neurotic attitude is based on an envie de vie ; it is an attempt to live without living, to be aloof, to avoid all the problems of life, while pretending that all is well, or that other people are to blame for whatever is wrong.

The usefulness of the volume is increased by an excellent preface on the history of Individual Psychology and its scientific background. In this essay Dr. F. C. Crookshank recalls Dr. Adler's early scientific work in showing the con- nexions between neurotic tendencies and specific abnormali-

ties of organic functions. In some degree, he points out, Dr. Adler is here returning to these original problems in which he has never lost interest ; " but it is a return in the light of an even riper wisdom and a more mellowed thought and experience."

ALAN PORTER.