Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences.This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Classics from the Tavistock Press.Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1972 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.

His highly significant essays explore many subjects that were only touched on in his books. Many of these discussions, present-day classics in their fields, are comprehensive monographs in themselves. Often so much is brought to bear on the central topic from so many sources, and then related so clearly to the context, that these essays become works of reference for a much larger field. It is a contribution of the greatest value to preserve and make conveniently available so much that is intensely useful from the life work of this remarkable man. The papers forming this volume are those that were written between the years 1922 and 1936. A Second Series, containing papers written from 1936 to 1946, is also available. The papers have been collected and edited by Dr. Hanna Fenichel and Dr. David Rapaport. Papers not heretofore published in English have been especially translated for this work by James and Alix Strachey.