Book Reviews

TOWARD A GENERAL THEORY OF ACTION T H E MEANING OF ANXIETY

edited by Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils Reviewed hy C, B., p. 233

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND RELIGION

hy RoUo May Reviewed hy Milton L. Miller, p. 2 3 7

PSYCHOTHERAPEUTISCHE STUDIEN

hy Erich Fromm Reviewed hy John A. P. Millet, p. 233

TEXTBOOK OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY

hy Ernst Kretschmer Reviewed hy Niels L. Anthonisen, p. 238

DEMENTIA PRAECOX OR THE GROUP OF (ed. 2) SCHIZOPHRENIAS hy C. Landis and Mi M. Bolles Reviewed hy S. C , p. 235 hy Eugen Bleuler (Joseph Zinkin, tr.) Reviewed hy John Lamont, p. 2 4 0 CARBON DIOXIDE THERAPY: A NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF NERVOUS DISORDERS CHILDHOOD AND SOCIETY

by L. J. Meduna Reviewed by Mary A. B. Brazier, p. 236

T H E NEUROLOGIC EXAMINATION: INCORPORATING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF NEUROANATOMY AND NEUROPHYSIOLOGY

hy Erik H. Erikson Reviewed by Edward A. Mason, p. 2 4 0

T H E HORMONES (Vol. II)

hy Russell N. Dejong Reviewed hy S. C , p. 237

edited by Gregory Pincus and Kenneth V. Thimann Reviewed by Earl T. Engle, p. 2 4 1

Toward a General Theory of Action

Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils (Eds.) with Edward C. Tolman, Gordon W. Allport, Clyde Kluckhohn, Henry A. Murray, Robert R. Sears, Richard C. Sheldon, and Samuel A. StouBer Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1951, 506 pp., $7.50.
O N FIRST PERUSING "TOWARD A GENERAL THEORY OF ACTION"

If you suffer from chills Try some Parsons and Shils It will cure you of doubts and of worry. Do not hide from your fears Trust in Clyde and in Sears and in Ahab. (alter ego of Murray) If your drives and your needs get confused with your deeds And you feel like an ignoble fraction Turn to Parts One and Two And discover how true
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Is the theory of organized action. But do not omit one jot or one tit In exploring this tome comprehensive Whose Parts Three and Four Are rich in their store Of food for the eager and pensive. For Gordon and Sam have cooked this ewe lamb To a turnnot too rare, nor too well done. This is by all odds a dish for the gods with original sources by Sheldon, So prepare for a treat Just dig in and eat And I wager you'll come out a whole-man Well padded and round with feet on the ground Like a model for Edward C. Tolman. C.B.

Psychoanalysis and Religion

Erich Fromm New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1950, 119 pp., $2.50. The turn of the century has found the human race in a more widespread state of turbulence

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234 and confusion than it has ever experienced within the span of recorded history. The Moscow dove of peace has replaced the wooden horse of Troy. The prophets of humanism shrink before the onslaught of triumphant authoritarianism. The churches cry for a peace which their congregations are powerless to achieve. Faith has surrendered its moorings to the invaders from Mars, who have commandeered the workshops of science. This little book attempts to interpret the inner meaning of our confusion. As an effort to reconcile the faith of the scientist with the ageless belief of man in the goodness and omnipotence of the Absolute it expresses within a brief compass a series of thoughtful reflections, some or all of which must have occurred to most men and women whose lives have been devoted to inquiry into the hidden recesses of the human psyche. Few such people, however, have that combination of wide scholarship, clarity of written expression, and strength of conviction, which enrich the pages of this little volume. The keynote is struck in the first page, on which the author contrasts the astounding technical advances of our modern age with man's failure to realize his dream of self-perfection. He likens the present state of spiritual chaos to the lost contact with inner reality which is seen in schizophrenia. Man, he says, has abandoned reason for intellect, has substituted behavior for insight, and thus has lost the ability to give a sense of purpose to the coming generation. Psychology has aped the other sciences, and thus has ignored the most specifically human phenomena, love, reason, conscience, and values. It remained for Sigmund Freud to show the way to a new understanding of the human mind, and to re-affirm the ancient promise: "The truth shall make you free." Dr. Fromm then plunges into the central theme, the relation of religion and psychoanalysis. He describes the difference between Freud and Jung in their conceptions of the significance of unconscious phenomena, and develops an interesting critique of Jung's logic. He points out that some psychoanalysts and some priests have asserted that their beliefs are irreconcilably opposed, whereas others have striven to find ways of reconciling them in the interest of more effective collaboration. In a long footnote at the end of the first chapter he shows how Mgr. Sheen quoted a passage from Freud ("The mask is fallen: psychoanalysis leads to a denial of God

BOOK REVIEWS
and of an ethical ideal") as though this were Freud's own view, whereas it was written as a forecast of what his opponents would say when they read his manuscript. Psychoanalysts, says Dr. Fromm, study the human reality behind religion. Whereas Jung suggests that since man is seized as if from without by the forces of the unconscious his surrender to these forces is the essence of religious feeling, Freud holds that a feeling of powerlessness is the opposite of religious feeling: "We may say that Freud opposes religion in the name of 'ethics,' an attitude which can be termed 'religious.' On the other hand Jung reduces religion to a psychological phenomenon and at the same time elevates the unconscious to a religious phenomenon." Man, says Dr. Fromm, is striving constantly to restore his oneness with nature. It is his tragedy that the differential in his evolutionary process has alienated him from the primitive mainsprings of his being. The dichotomy thus produced man as a product of nature and man as a highly complex intellectual organismrenders impossible for him the animistic beliefs of his ancestors and thus creates a void in his cosmological orientation. If he is not successful in meeting the adaptive problems which face him the conflict that ensues results frequently in neurosis, which Fromm considers a substitutive or "private" form of religion. The psychologist, to understand the meaning of neurosis, must understand both the symbolic significance of the symptom and the value system of the patient. Fromm considers that adherence to a religious cult has a great advantage over the substitutive adaptation which we call neurosis in that it removes the individual from a state of unwilling, even though self-created, isolation. Over one third of the text is devoted to a critical examination of two contrasting types of religious experience, the authoritarian and the humanistic. He emphasizes the fact that while authoritarian religion depends on the unquestioning submission of the individual to the dogma that is current, humanistic religion fosters the ideal of progressive individuation. He understands by religion "any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of reference and an object of devotion." If Man projects his own most valuable powers on to God he becomes alienated from himself and so loses faith in himself and his fellow men. He acts without love, even in his
PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE

BOOK REVIEWS
worship, and strives to get God to re-instate him. Thus we see once more the validity of an old proverb: "God helps him that helps himself." In authoritarian religion, then, the temptation is to abdicate the position of responsibility for one's attitudes and behavior. The wish for a Perfect Being, however, is no proof of His existence. To assume, however, that certain irrational expectations are certain proof that believers are incapable of rational thinking is also unjustifiable. He goes on to suggest that the "sheep nature" of man being in continuous conflict with his "human nature" forces him to rationalizations as a compromise. In interpreting the psychoanalytic approach to religion he states its aim to be "the understanding of human reality behind thought systems." Its contrasting aims are to adjust the individual to the prevailing culture, while helping him to achieve independence, integrity, and the ability to love. He claims as a religious function of the psychoanalyst the "cure of the soul," as opposed to "adjustment therapy." The psychoanalyst is freer to help his patient to recognize Truth, the truth within, as well as the truth without. Such an opinion, he recognizes to be possibly offensive to theistic doctrine. He emphasizes in his own defence the fact that in all leading religions and philosophies there is agreement on the principle that "the truth shall make you free." Human love, says the author, must have freedom and separateness as a pre-condition, as opposed to unresolved incestuous ties or their derivatives. The deeper significance of the universal tabu on incest may be said to lie in its symbolic aspectthe indication, that is implicit only, of the need for facilitating breaks from the traditional beliefs and dogmatic assumptions. Organized religion tends toward the creation of a "religious" bureaucracy, which in turn keeps alive a quasi-incestuous dependency among its adherents, who then come to worship the group rather than God as originally conceived. Love for the human being is based on an attitude of affirmation and respect. It must exist first in relation to the self. Like God's love it proceeds from inner strength, not from weakness. He then goes on to classify those aspects of religious experience which go beyond the ethical, as: 1. Wonder at life and one's own existence. 2. Concern with the meaning of life, with selfrealization, and with the fulfilment of one's appointed tasks.
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235 3. The polarity existing between the drive for awareness and the wish to be one with The All. With respect to the familiar complaints against psychoanalysis for the length of time involved in such treatment he makes the plea that this close attention symbolizes a deep respect for the individual and so needs no justification. One is reminded of the parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep. He deplores the tragedy of modern man, who through alienation from his self is forced to seek his value in the public marketplace. It is this indifference to the true self and consequently to others that is the real threat to religion, not psychology or science. He is not blind to the significance of the value system of the psychoanalyst, and quotes examples to show how this may determine the course of psychoanalytic therapy. In discussing rituals in religious practice he considers that they may be "irrational," based on irrational impulses, or may exemplify shared action expressive of common strivings rooted in common values. This latter type of ritual is not accompanied by anxiety. He is forced, therefore, to deplore the poverty, of common devotional rituals in our society, and the substitution of those familiar in fraternal societies. The quarrel over whether belief in God is paramount or not masks the real problem which faces mankind, which is how to discover and promote that human attitude which in terms of his definition may be truly called religious. Dr. Fromm has made a valiant attempt to sustain the claims of psychoanalysts that their teachings and therapeutic efforts contribute to the search after Truth, and may therefore be called essentially religious. While deprecating the trend which authoritative religions show toward the maintenance of infantile, dependent ties, he acknowledges the value of devotional living and of those ritual observances which symbolize the need for individual and communal closeness with the ideal of self-fulfilment in the service of Truth. JOHN A. P. MILLET Textbook of Abnormal Psychology (ed. 2) C. Landis and M. M. Bolles New York, The Macmillan Co., 1950, 634 pp., $5.00. This is a new arid enlarged edition of the excellent text first published in 1946. There are five sections: CO Orientation; (2.) Varieties of

xiv, NO. 3, 1952