INTRODUCTION

Professor Freud developed his system of psychoanalysis
while studying the so-
called border-
line cases of mental
diseases, such as hysteria and compulsion neurosis. By
discarding the old methods of treatment and strictly apply-
ing himself to a study of the patient’s life he discovered
that the hitherto puzzling symptoms had a definite meaning,
and that there was nothing arbitrary in any morbid mani-
festation. Psychoanalysis always showed that they referred
to some definite problem or conflict of the person concerned.
It was while tracing back the abnormal to the normal state
that Professor Freud found how faint the line of demarca-
tion was between the normal and neurotic person, and
that the psychopathologic mechanisms so glaringly observed
in the psychoneuroses and psychoses could usually be
demonstrated in a lesser degree in normal persons. This
led to a study of the faulty actions of everyday life and
later to the publication of the Psychopathology of Everyday
Life, a book which passed through four editions in Germany
and is considered the author’s most popular work. With
great ingenuity and penetration the author throws much
light on the complex problems of human behaviour, and
clearly demonstrates that the hitherto considered impassable
gap between normal and abnormal mental states is more
apparent than real.

This translation is made of the fourth German edition,
and while the original text was strictly followed, linguistic
difficulties often made it necessary to modify or substitute
some of the author’s cases by examples comprehensible to
the English-
speaking reader.

New York.

A. A. Brill.