A comprehensive presentation of the dynamics of neurosis, with valuable clinical material and a discussion of treatment; translated from the German. The wealth of clinical and theoretical data which psychoanalysis has been gathering for almost forty years as yet awaits an adequate systematization. A number of summaries and more or less complete systematic reviews of the field of psychoanalysis have been attempted and a number of them, of greater or less value, have been published with either the specialist or the general medical or or lay public in mind. Dr. Fenichel’s Outline is not one of these attempts. It is rather a systematized and almost impersonal presentation of clinical data which psychoanalysis has collected in the course of almost forty years and Dr. Fenichel frankly sacrifices simplified clarity to systematic completeness. The clinician will find it a very useful reference book; the general medical reader or the psychologist will find it to be a plain statement of fact made without prejudice or special preference to any of the variety of currents in present day psychoanalytical thought. It is the first outline of what the psychoanalytical trends are in the field of clinical work, leaving out the controversial attitudes which are always to be found in a living scientific discipline that has not yet become dogmatized.

The history of psychoanalysis in 50 countries shows the relationship between psychoanalysis and other disciplines, with entries discussing writers, philosophers, literary movements and historical events.