Customer Reviews

The Book of the It

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This is a good book for those psychologists and students of psychology who want to explore where Herr Dr. Joy (which is the English translation of 'freude') received his understandings of the Unconscious. Many people think Freud simply came up with the concept on his own after working with his patients. Not so. He simply popularized the concept outside of Germany.

I found this a fun book to read when I was in college at the University of Michigan, much more entertaining than reading Freud's materials. Freud was fairly stuffy overall, Groddeck seems to have a much better sense of playfulness in his writing.

This is a fascinating book whose author's contribution to psychoanalysis is not given enough credit. His concept of the 'It' influenced Freud's Id, but its scope is wider. Groddeck sees the It as the central active component of the psyche. In addition,he was the first doctor explore the psyche as a cause of organic disease. Groddeck undertook psychoanalysis in a method of treating organic disease in contrast to Freud's treatment of pathologies of the mind.

Not all of his statements are to be taken seriously, he notes. And indeed some of them do strain the imagination. But the book is eminently readable and the Introduction by Durrell captures Groddeck's contributions perfectly.