The Washington herald., 1922-01-08

his record real significance.
"A Young Girls Dairy, With
Preface by Sigmund Freud
(Thomas Seltzer).
Freud has gone to the trouble, in
his preface, OF guaranteeing the
documents authenticity. but this is
unnecessary except as an encour-
agement to read the book, for no
one who has read 1t would for a
moment suspect its authenticity. It
would take a mighty clever adult
to simulate this frank outpouring
OF the adolescent mind. The girl
diarist Is German or Austrian, OF a
good family, aged IL at the begin
ming and 14h at the end OF the
book. She is apparently normal.
articulate and observing. Freud.
OF course. sponsors the volume for
its psychological implications. He
even states that corrections OF the
girls grammar and spelling have
not been made because they should
be looked upon as manifestations
OF affective trends, as errors in
functioning brought about by the
influence of the unconscious" And
certainly there seems to be a great
deal in the book to corroborate and
amplify his chief theories. But even
those who are not students OF
Freud. or who are merely amateur
psychologists at best, will find
plenty of interest in the Young
Girls Diary"-that is, IL they are
interested in youth and its ways Of
looking at HE. Crete, the diarist
land she prefers to be called."Rita"
since it is more romanticD, is typi-
cally Teutonic, and that fact makes
the book as amusing as. for in
stance, elizabeth and Her German
Garden" The child's passion for
holidays, birthdays parties. and so
on; her uncurbed sentimentallzing.
her esteem for officers and all en-
blems of authority, are all naively
and amusingly expressed. But be-
sides being Teutonic, she is, more
than all. typically adolescent, and is
absorbed in exactly the same in
terests as every girl Of her age and
class the whole world over. eek
cept, let me say, that I believe
American and English girls Of this
age have far more interest In ath-
letics and games as a rule, than did
German Grete.) As far as the signif
canoe Of these interests and OF her
thought-processes go, the amateur
psychologist, at least. will not be
startled. We have all known for
some time. ever since ladies gave
up swooning and have taken up
frankness in conversation as
substitute, that girls as well as
boys are consumed by an interest in
sex at an astonishingly early age.
discuss it among themselves, re-
ceive a great deal of Illicit and
information from each
other and In general fret about the
subject considerably more than Is
ever apparent. Grete's revelations
in this matter, therefore, will shock
no one. They are a little more
frank and complete than anything
we have had before: that Is all.
Nor will her passions for teachers
and others, her irritations with her
sister. and all her other adolescent
emotions shock any one. What she
says merely expresses what we all
know more or less well about girls
of her age. But to the Freudian, OF
course. there are other and deeper
significances. and the book is a
vnritable mine of possibilities,
which Justify Freud himself in
saying in a letter: 1T Is certainly
incumbent on you to publish this
diary. All students of my own
writings will be grateful to you"
New novels by william Patterson
White. Bertrand W Sinclair. Hal
G. Evarts. Courtney Ryley Cooper
and Bertram Atkey will be pub
lished by Little. Brown and Com
pany In January.