Abstract
DR. L. BERG looks on the human personality from the Gestalt point of view, a conception which has been gradually developing during recent years amongst those best qualified to judge. There is a number of unusually sensible statements in this book—perhaps the most sensible is: “We speak of ‘problem children’ but we should really say problem parents.“So many problem children are the results of errors of training in the pre-school years. It is only expressing the view of one school of thought to say that manic-depressive insanity, dementia praecox and paranoia are functional diseases. These disorders are not necessarily due to psychic wounds. Kretschmer's rigid views as to the development of cyclothymia in pyknics and dementia prsecox in asthenic types have recently had considerable doubt cast upon them and we should adopt an attitude towards them of ‘not proven’. To say that “schizoids become insane because of psychic wounds such as sorrow, unhappy love affairs or career failures” is using symptoms to explain causation.
The Human Personality.
By Louis Berg. Pp. xv + 321. (London: Williams and Norgate, Ltd., 1933.) 8s. 6d. net.
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[Short Reviews]. Nature 133, 374 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133374b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133374b0