Abstract
Miss BABBABA Low's “Unconscious in Action” is an attempt to show the importance of psychoanalytic theory in the explanation of character formation. At the same time it is a plea for the use of analysis in the school-room. The author does not, indeed, advocate psycho-analysis of children by their teachers; but she does desire to see the teachers themselves analysed so that, understanding the complex tendencies of their own ‘unconscious’ and its mechanisms, they may the better appreciate the potentialities for good and evil of the hidden forces lying in the depths of the child-mind. Thus, knowing himself, the teacher will realise the influence of the ‘unconscious’ upon consciousness, the way in which ‘repressions’—fruitful causes of mal-adjustments—are brought about, the dependence of the intellectual life upon the emotional, the role of fantasy, and the like; and he will make use of his knowledge in helping the child to adjust himself to reality. Moreover, understanding the ‘unconscious’ and its mechanisms, he will at least know when to call in the professional analyst as need may arise.
The Unconscious in Action: its Influence upon Education.
By Barbara Low. Pp. 226. (London: University of London Press, Ltd., 1928.) 5s. net.
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The Unconscious in Action: its Influence upon Education . Nature 122, 766 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122766a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122766a0