Book Review of Psychoanalysis Today by Agostino Gemelli, Translated by John Chapin and Salvator Attanasia Timothy J
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The Linacre Quarterly Volume 23 | Number 2 Article 5 5-1-1956 Book Review of Psychoanalysis Today by Agostino Gemelli, Translated by John Chapin and Salvator Attanasia Timothy J. Gannon Follow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, and the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Gannon, Timothy J. (1956) "Book Review of Psychoanalysis Today by Agostino Gemelli, Translated by John Chapin and Salvator Attanasia," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 23 : No. 2 , Article 5. Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol23/iss2/5 ology. his gross exa ggeration of unresolved questions awakeH new the role of sex in the etiology of in terest in the reader and stimulate mental disorder and his reduction him to read a whole work d t>voted of all religious experience to neu to the subject, like Karl Stern's rotic origins is sound and justified. Third R evolution or some of the ,· ok Review But the urgent question for the recent cont ribution s of Gregory '· layman or psychiatrist today is. Z ilboorg, Psychoanalysis Today "What should be the attitude of will have amply fulfilled its pur the enlightened Catholic towards pose. Freud and the movement he insti The second chapter, devoted to gated?" Are we to reject him com " The Analy tic P sy chology of pletely as being vitiated root and Jung," suffers from none of the Agostino Gemelli , O.F.M., M.D. branch by his palpable errors con ambivalence of the preceding chap (Tra ns. by J ohn C ho pin and Solvotor Attana sio) cerning man, which are ultimately ter. Here, w it h deftn ess a nd philosophical and theological? O r assurance the author points up the Review by When one sets out to evalm te is it possible that beneath all of danger of being taken in by Jung's these philosophical a nd even psy Very Rev. Msgr. the contribution of Sigmund Pre 1d pseudo-religious jargon, a booby chological misconceptions there is Timothy J. G a nnon to our understan ding of hum in tra p that not all C atholics have Director, Depo rtme nt of Psychology dynamics, whether normal or co new insight into the dynamics of avoided. He calls attention to the Lora s College, Dub uque, Iowa normal. he is faced with a form;d the human persona lity and the way fact t ha t a lt hough Jung speaks Any writer w ho attempts to re able task. This is partly becat se opened to a more understanding bold ly of God, religion, morality, think the thoughts of Freud in the of Freud's picturesque but oft ~n and fruitful approach to the prob redemption and salvation, it would context of a sound ·concept of man ambiguous terminology and par.ly lem of mental illness? For these be a grea t mistake to assume that and the simple acceptance of his because he made up his system as questio~s the author provides no he is using these terms in their supernatural destiny is entitled to he went along. The result is ti at clear a n d unambiguous answer. traditional sense. While far from the appreciative attention of the there are as many moods and .n While voicing his grave objections sharing Freud's strictures on re thoughtful reader, lay or profes flections of psychoanalysis as there to Freudian psychoanalysis -he is, ligion, Jung gives evidence of the sional. When the writer happens are people who adopt its view neverthdess, unwilling to go along failure to emancipate himself from to be at once a medica l doctor, a points or methods. In the fi rst with those critics w ho completely the insidious error of modernism research psychologist and a Cath c h apte r . "Freudian Psychoa r. al reject Freud's contribution to psy that finds the origins of religious olic priest, the attempt to establish ysis," F ather Gemelli examines chiatry. faith in the projection of uncon intellectual contact with Freud is from the viewpoint of a psycholo One gets the impression that at scious yearnings. In conclusion all the more significant. This is the gist and psychiatrist, the doctri,tes an earlier date Father Gemelli had the author calls attention to the recommendation of the three es of Freud as he elaborated them. rejected Freud quite unreservedly fact that any mere psychotherapy . says on psychoanalysis by Father The net effect of Father Gemel based on natural techniques a nd Agostino Gemelli, 0 .F.M .. M .D .. because of his erroneous concept li 's critical exposition of Freudian of man. Now, some years older, he aiming at integration of person founder of the University of the tenets leaves something to be de ality on the purely natural level Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy, a nd seems to sense that there is an · sired. What one misses particu element of profou n d t r uth in must always fall short of achiev chairman of the department of larly is the effort to detach Freud's Freud's clinical conclusions con ing the complete adjustment of psychology in that institution. purely clinical observations and cerning the human personality. But man t o b is t ot a l environment. This series of essays originally psychological insights from their in order to be of much help to the which a t its highest level. includes contributed to the Italian review, setting in late nineteenth century busy layman or psychiatrist, the God. Vita e Pensiero. now appears in materialism and antireligious bias. critique of Freud must carefully Following excelle n t Scriptural transla tion as three chapters of a The a uthor's criticism of Freud for sift what is true and verifiable fact precedent, Fa ther Gemdli has re little book entitled, Psychoanalysis his lack of scientific method, his concerning ma n from w h at is served the best wine till the last. T oday. frequent flights into Greek myth- plausible fiction. If, however, these The final chapter, "The T eaching 62 LINACRE QUARTE RLY M.~v. 1956 63 of Piu, XII on · Psychotherapy," Catholic doctors, clinical p y is the outstanding contribution of c hologis ts and psychotherap ,ts the hoc . Dr. Braceland, a psychi will want to read the paj a l atrist ot international stature, says documents in connection w t h of it: "Tne book would be worth this chapter. (English versi. ns the price of admission if only to are to be found in The Cath lie get the author's comments upon Mind and The Pope Speaks.) F 1 ,m the Holy Father's dissertation on these, as well as from Fat: er 'Psychotherapy and Religion' .. " Gemelli's timely commentary, t ey In this section the author em will draw inspiration as they cc 11e phasizes the significance of the to realize the genuine interest of Holy Father's a l locution to the the . Supreme Pontiff in their f :o members of the First International fession. At the same time they · 1ill Congress of Histopathology of the find helpful norms to guide tl em N ervous S yst em, September I I , in their exploration of the hid len 1952, (LI NACRE QUARTERLY, Nov. layers of the human persona :ty. 1952, pp. 98-1 07 ) and of the sec as they try to bring relief to ,Ja ond address, even more important, tients caught in the toils of mf ital to the Fifth International Con illness. gress of Psychotherapy and Clin ical Phychology, April 13, I 953. PSYCHOANALYSIS TODAY ( LIN ACRE QUARTERLY, Nov. 1953. published by pp. 97-105). He then offers a P. J. KENEDY & SONS commentary that is admirable in 12 Barclay St. its enlightened and balanced in New York 8, N. Y. terpretation. 1955. pp. 153 64 LINACRE QuAR1ERLY .