PREFACE

Amona the many difficulties confronting those who wish to
acquire a knowledge of psycho-analysis, not the least has been
the absence of a suitable text-book with which they could begin
their studies. They have hitherto had their choice among three
classes of book, against each of which some objection could be
urged from the point of view of the beginner. They could pick
their way through the heterogeneous collection of papers, such
as those published by Freud, Brill, Ferenczi, and myself, which
were not arranged on any coherent plan and were also for the
greater part addressed to those already having some knowledge
of the subject. Or they could struggle with more systematic
volumes, such as those by Hitschmann and Barbara Low, which
suffer from condensation because of the difficulty of having
to compress so much into a small space. Or, finally, it might ;
be their fate to come across one of the numerous books, which |
need not be mentioned by name, that purport to give an
adequate account of psycho-analysis, but whose authors have
neglected the necessary preliminary of acquiring a proper know- |
ledge of the subject themselves. The gap in the literature of |
psycho-analysis has now been filled by the writer most compe- |
tent of all to do it—namely, Professor Freud himself, and the‘
world of clinical psychology must be grateful to him for the
effort it must have cost to write such a book in the midst of
his other multitudinous duties. In the future we can unhesi-
tatingly deal with the question so often asked, and say: This
is the book with which to begin a study of psycho-analysis.
Even here, however, the reader should be warned that it
is necessary to add a few modifications to the statement that
the present volume is a complete text-book of psycho-analysis.
The circumstances of its inception forbid its being so regarded.
The book consists of three separate courses of lectures delivered
at the University of Vienna in two winter sessions, 1915—1917.
The first two of these presuppose absolutely no knowledge of
the subject, and the style in which they were delivered constitute
them an ideal introduction to the subject. But in the third
5

6 PREFACE

Semester Professor Freud, doubtless assuming that those of his
audience who had pursued their studies so far would by then
have widened their reading otherwise, decided to treat them no
longer as mere beginners, and so felt himself free to deal more
technically with the more difficult subject-matter of the third
course—the psycho-analysis of neurotic affections. The result
is that the second half of the book is of a much more advanced
nature than the first, a fact which, it is true, has the advantage
that the author was able here and there to communicate some
of his latest conclusions on obscure points. Every student of
psycho-analysis, therefore, however advanced, will be able to
learn much from this volume.

One must also remark that the book does not convey an
adequate impression of the extensive bearing that psycho-
analysis has on other humanistic studies than those here dealt
with. Apart from a few hints scattered here and there, there
is little indication of the extent to which psycho-analysis has
already been applied, to sociology, to the study of racial develop-
ment, and above all, to the psychology of the normal man. The
book is definitely confined to its three topics of psychopathology
of everyday life, dreams, and neuroses, these having been chosen
as constituting the most suitable subject-matter with which to
effect the author’s purpose—namely, to introduce students to
psycho-analysis.

An American translation of the book has already appeared,
but, apart from its deficiencies of style, it contained so many
serious falsities in translation—a passage, for instance, to the
effect that delusions cannot be influenced is translated in such
a way as to commit Professor Freud, of all people, to the state-
ment that obsessions cannot be cured—that it was decided to
issue a fresh translation. This has been carried out with
scrupulous care by Mrs. Riviere, aided by drafts carried out
by Miss Cecil M. Baines of the eleven lectures in Part II. I
have compared the whole book with the original, and have dis-
cussed doubtful and difficult points with Professor Freud and
Mrs. Riviere. Mrs. Riviere’s English translation will be its own
recommendation : I can give the reader the assurance that it
is a faithful and exact rendering.

ERNEST JONES.
December 1921,