This review was originally published in the TLS of October 24, 1918

What happens in our mind when we hear a word uttered? One aspect of this question, the psychoanalytical aspect, is considered in the imposing volume that Dr. Jung and his colleagues have prepared. Psychoanalysis has to reveal and dissipate inner troubles that are not consciously known to the patient, though they may be at the root of profound neurotic disturbances; and one of the most valuable methods in the technique, especially at the outset, is the association test. In this the analyst calls out a series of simple words and the patient reacts to each, as quickly as possible, with the first word that comes into his head. Signs of a complex—the concealed trouble—are shown not only, nor often, by the nature of the association-word given but by the length of the reaction time (measured with a stop watch) and a number of other indications which tell the experienced eye that a stimulus-word has found its target. If the unconscious reaction of concealment is to hurry out a neutral word in quick time, the sudden effort produces other disturbances that can be traced, even if the analyst does not practise the refinement of passing a weak electric current through his patient during the test—for a change in emotional tension is found to produce a change in conductivity, so that the disturbance can be shown by a sensitive galvanometer.

The solid work that the Swiss school of psychoanalysts are carrying out is the establishment and identification of certain well-marked “reaction types” — types, normal or nervous, that tend to react in specific ways. The most distinct is the “predicate type”: people who show a wish to express what the stimulus-word means to them personally. Then there are the “outer” and “inner” types, the former tending to produce superficial associations, the latter to pay greater attention to the meaning of the stimulus-word. These classifications are of much value to the practising analyst, and they have been obtained at the cost of much time in experimental and statistical work. A difficulty, in many cases, is to distinguish the two main types of inner and outer association, classed as “co-ordination” (of ideas) and “co-existence” (of mental images). The reviewer has found it useful in doubtful cases to classify a set of reactions twice, once with a bias towards co-ordination and once with a bias towards co-existence, and then to split the difference.

Apart from the question of psycho-pathology, analytical psychology promises to add considerably to our knowledge of educational and social problems. Dr. Jung and Dr. Riklin have collated many thousands of word-associations to show the difference in reaction-type between the educated and the uneducated, and also between men and women. It is significant that the sex difference — educated men compared with educated women, and uneducated men with uneducated women — is very much less than the cultural difference — the educated of both sexes compared with the uneducated of both sexes. The book also contains material of great value for comparing the average reactions of the uneducated with those of the mentally deficient; there are probably very many cases in which the defective represents, not the sins of his fathers or a freak of nature, but a failure of our present civilization to provide the educational opportunities that would give expression to the more unusual, and perhaps not the less valuable, types of mind.

Dr. Emma Fürst contributes an interesting chapter in continuation of her previous work on the similarity of reaction-types among members of the same family. The most striking resemblances, again, are between mothers and unmarried daughters resident with them, and between unmarried sisters living in the same home. Married daughters of a family tend strongly towards their husbands’ reaction-type, however distinct this may be from the types of the mother and unmarried sisters. This is more especially the case among the uneducated. Statistics for educated married women are as yet insufficient, but it would seem that they tend more to strike out a line of their own.

A considerable step is made, in a chapter by Professor Bleuler, towards clarifying the theory of unconscious mind-processes. As he says, “observation is unable to draw any border-line between conscious and unconscious. Exactly the same functional formations and mechanisms which we find in the conscious are demonstrable outside it”; and the question arises what the fundamental reason may be for the distribution of consciousness, at any given moment, over a given portion of the mind’s content. Under what conditions are psychical processes conscious? “I believe they become so,” writes Profossor Bleuler, by association with our ego; that is, with the presentations, sensations, desires, which at any given, moment compose our personality.” That which is present in the mind, but is not constellated to the ego of the moment, is unconsciously present; and it may be exercising the strongest influence upon us without our knowledge.

The book furnishes a model for experimental work that promises to extend greatly our knowledge of psychological types. We may hope, with Dr. Eder, that the method will be used to amplify and give precision to the standard tests that are becoming increasingly important for education. Dr. Eder is to be congratulated on a very lucid and readable translation.

To read the review in this week's TLS of Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The strange friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung by Arthur I. Miller, click here.

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