Sigmund Freud—Volume III: The Last Phase

The last phase of the life and work of Sigmund Freud 1919-1939, is described with love, devotion, and meticulous care, by his disciple, our own Ernest Jones. The progress and misfortune, the fame and suffering, the last years in Vienna and London, are described in the early chapters with historical reviews of his contributions in Part II, extracts and notes on the cancerous disease from which he suffered?all these provide a unique and important account. Fortunately the type of cancer from which Freud suffered was evidently of slow growth and he was spared some 17 years after its onset?a period in which he had an outburst of creative mental energy. We must pay tribute to the amazing courage of the man who suffered 33 operations and accepted the disablement, pain, and the prospect of death itself with philosophic resignation. It is pitiable that so great a man should have had to suffer from petty financial troubles (due to inflation and not to any fault of his), also much sorrow in his personal life through the death of a loved grandson, and finally the unparalleled persecution of his race from tlie Nazis. But there is no doubt of the dedicated nature of Anna's care for him?a true daughter, as Dr. Jones says, of an immortal sire. A chorus of praise has rightly gone up to Dr. Jones, pupil, collaborator and personal friend, for the completion of this trilogy ?n the life and work of the Viennese master. The present reviewer, perhaps from a wish to be different, would like to sound a more critical note. From the point of view of a small-minded worker in the public health field, one must query the value of psychoanalysis to the community, apart from its value to the selected individual. So expensive is it of time, skill, and money, that it is feared that psychoanalysis will have little part in our schemes for the improvement of psychological health of the people. What contribution has Jt made to public health? Must we not rather look to improvement ?f the social environment, to the development of existing mental health services, of efforts to bring more physical and psychological health into the family, home and the workplace , and to bring both at home and abroad more peace and goodwill into the world? Can we not allow and encourage the release of spiritual forces, of which Freud …