WILTSHIRE, Miss J., 10, Cartwright Gardens, W.C. 1.

WINGFIELD, HUGH, M.D., 27, Welbeck St, W. 1.

WINTON, FRANK R., B.A., University College Hospital, W.C. 1.

WOHLGEMUTH, A., D.Sc., Rutland Lodge, May's Hill Road, Shortlands, Kent.

WOLTERS, A. W., M.A., University College, Reading.

WOODCOCK, O. M., M.B., Dunmurry, Goodeve Road, Sneyd Park, Bristol.

WOODS, Miss A., St Ives, Cross Path, Radlett, Herts.

WOODS, Major J., 11, Palace Green, W. 8.

WRIGHT, M., M.D., 86, Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, W.

WRINCH, Miss D. M., Girton College, Cambridge.

WYATT, S., M.Ed., Willshaw, Chinley, Derbyshire.

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VOLUME V, PART II, 1924
CONTENTS OF PART II

FREUD, SIGM.: The Infantile Genital Organization of the Libido.
TAUSK, VICTOR: Compensation as a Means of Discounting the Motive of
Repression.

REIK, THEODOR: Some Remarks on the Study of Resistances.

FLÜGEL, J. C.: Polyphallic Symbolism and the Castration Complex.

ABRAHAM, K.: Blunders with an Over-compensating Tendency.

MEYER, M. A.: A Compounded Slip of the Tongue.

EDER, M. D.: From Child Life.

ABSTRACTS.

BOOK REVIEWS.

BULLETIN OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL ASSOCIATION.

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THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL PRESS 57, Weymouth Street, London, W. I

NEUROSES.

By J. C. McKERROW.

I.

THE view of Life peculiar to myself set forth in "The Appearance of Mind" and "Aberrations of Life" regards all manifestations of life as the interaction of living process and its conditions, the organism and its environment, and dispenses altogether with all "conscious faculties"; I do not use the notions of feeling, sensation, will, belief, knowledge, memory, etc., and if I use the terms, it is only for the sake of convenience. I cannot enter here into a discussion of the steps by which living-activity (emerging from non-living-activity) comes to be manifested as complex organisms, apparently endowed with "conscious faculties." The essential conception in the theory is that of a relation of equilibrium between the living-process and its conditions, analogous to that which exists between chemical action and its conditions, which, as it were, controls the livingprocess, in that the total situation is constantly tending towards such equilibrium, a change in the conditions being the occasion of a change in the activity. It is clear, since living-activity never ceases, unless, in individual manifestations, it ceases for ever, that this state of equilibrium is not one of rest, of physiological or bio-chemical inactivity. It may be defined as a state (of the whole situation, organism-environment) in which the living-process proceeds normally. The whole environment, external and internal (the bodily activities proceeding normally), is so right that nothing more is "desired." It is Nirvana. The intrusion of a "desire," an act of "attention," a "painful stimulus," constitute a disturbance of the equilibrium. This equilibrium I call "viable" equilibrium, and the operation of the tendency to viable equilibrium can be described in three "laws." (1) Action tends to be repeated in similar circumstances, (2) Unviable activity tends not to be repeated, (3) Activity tends to occur at its proper period. The First and Third of these laws state the same thing from different points of view, as may be illustrated in the case of "hunger." The tendency to eat may be regarded as occurring in certain (bodily) circumstances, or at a certain period. The Second Law covers all cases of "learning."

Med. Psych. IV

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