Putnam, J: On Freud's Psycho-Analytic Method and Its Evoluti

Excerpt from On Freud's Psycho-Analytic Method and Its EvolutionBut while no man, however able, can without long study master the details of this method, every man who would be liberal or scientific can and should master its principles and give the move ment his generous sympathy and support.What is psycho-analysis, and what, in general, are its aims? Psycho-analysis is a method of investigating and treating nervous invalidism and (incidentally) faults of character, which owes its strength to the fact that it searches and studies in detail, so far as this is practicable, all the significant experiences through which the patient to be treated has passed, and the motives and impulses which have animated him at psychologically important moments of his life, even since his earliest childhood. In doing this it discovers, not, indeed, all the causes of the disorder from which he sufiers, but a large number of important partial causes, and thus prepares the way for the in¿uences tending toward recovery. This definition is, I think, substantially correct, but it needs some explanation, amplification and qualification.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.