Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/87

This page needs to be proofread.

THE UNCONSCIOUS 79

analysis he calls attention to Freud's service in the new science of the unconscious mental life, and he makes an attempt to syn- thesise analytic and non-analytic psychology. Whereas Jelgersma in his address proved to be scientifically impartial and strictly to the point, a distinguished German Professor, Windelband shrank from the "uncanny idea" (33, S. 7), "that contents, impulses and strivings can belong to our mental life without our being aware of them in the clear course of our conscious activities". The tech- nical and intelligent investigation of Professor Aloys Fischer of Munich (8) comes as a pleasing contrast to a defence that is so rich in affects. Fischer rejects the equating of mental reahty and consciousness, and on the basis of theoretical investigations comes near to many views of psycho-analysis, recognising the existence, nature, and legitimacy of the unconscious as a subject of scientific psychology. Bloch (5), whom the reviewer unfortunately cannot always comprehend, goes along speculative paths, and passes from the physiological into the transcendental and absolute, into the realm of metaphysics. The study that Ganz (15) has furnished of Leibnitz's views on the unconscious and their relation to modern theories may be mentioned as a symptom of the increasing interest in the unconscious on the side of philosophy. This author also compares the hypotheses of Hartmann, Hering, Wundt, Sanon, etc. with those of Freud, so that his work forms a supplement to Kaplan's attempt (21) at a history of the science of the unconscious which leads from Mesmer through Charcot to Freud.

In Freud's Vorlesungen (11) the psychopathology of everyday life, with its manifold and many sided relations to the Uncon- scious, received a presentation of especial value as an introduction; while the two new editions of the "Psychopathologie des AUtags- lebens" which were published during the period to which this review refers contain many supplementary examples (12). In the routine of the day one constantly notices fresh instances of little unconsciously determined mistakes. Almost all analysts and many non-analysts have made contributions to this subject which is the one where the phenomena of the Unconscious are most easily to be clearly observed in operation (la — 24a).