ABSTRACT
ONE of the outstanding merits of the contributions of psychoanalytic psychology is its emphasis of the subjective, or internal, factor in human motivation and conduct. I t is essentially an "instinct psychology" and endeavors to discern in the natural equipment of the human being as well as in those vicissitudes which are common to every individual the conditions which further or hinder normal development. The importance of this manner of approach to the elucidation and management of the problem of human adaptation cannot be overemphasized. I t exposes the fallacies inherent in attempts to explain man's adaptive difficulties and his maladjustments in terms of external causes which, so to speak, act upon a passive, non-participating organism. To be sure, such strictly external factors as injury, or intoxication, or serious nutritional privations, etc., may and do affect the individual in a deleterious manner. But even here, the issue is ultimately decided in many instances, perhaps in all instances where the result is not absolutely irrevocable, by the reactive capacity and fundamental attitudes towards such events of the individual concerned.
