Abstract

cx-panded,tions close“quarrelsof self-esteem friendship.”pupils,discords,and ques-replaced the former spirit of Freud once remarked to Stekel, ‘When I look at my pupils, I get the impression that psychoanalysis liberates the worst instincts in human beings.” Stekel describes those early hectic days, disagreements among members of the circle, conflicts with Freud, secession of Adler, Jung, and himself. Stekel discusses in detail his professional life with numerous epitomized case histories, including hisas medicalin WorldI andan extended visit to the United States. In many places the autobiography reads like a diary intended for the writer’s eye alone. The author devotes several pages to his controversy with Freud and indicates in some detail their points of divergence, a main one being Stekel’s briefer “active-analytic” method as compared with Freud’s years-long procedure. “There is such a thing as overtreatment in analysis.” For self-revelation Stekel’s autobiography is invaluable. His restless temperament demanding con-trist can proceed to use the test on his own patients. It provides valuable tables and a quite inspired scoring template for dealing with the test performance. It gives enough of interpretative and diagnostic guidance to stimulate interest in using the method to develop one’s own interpretative skill with practice and the help of