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
applying himself to a study of the patient's life he dis-
covered that the hitherto puzzling symptoms had a
definite meaning, and that there was nothing arbitrary
in any morbid manifestation. 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 demarcation 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.

INTRODUCTION

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.

A. A. BRILL.