ABSTRACT
It is the duty of the physician, when presented with a case of neurosis, to discover what sort of a personality his patient was before the breakdown occurred, what change the failure of adaptation has brought about, and to what extent he can be restored, if not to his original form, at least to an adequate adjustment to life. In this investigation the physician is helped, if he has some sort of scheme, whereby he can pigeonhole the various types of personality with whom he meets in the course of his work, provided always, that he uses such a scheme as a means to an end and not an end in itself. There are many such schemes, the most useful in my opinion being that which has been worked out by Jung. Freud’s classification, while undoubtedly delineating recognizable types of personality attributes these to the persistence of anal eroticism, urethral eroticism, oral eroticism, and the like. We have already suggested that the Freudians lay too much stress on these eroticisms, and therefore it does not seem advisable to try to work on these premises.
