SOURCE: "Pavlov and Freud," in Science & Society, Vol. XXV, No. 2, Spring, 1961, pp. 129-38.

In the following review of Pavlov and Freud by Harry K. Wells, Bartlett cites Wells's failure to produce a satisfying materialist critique of Freud using Pavlovian theory.

Wells' Pavlovian Critique of Freud [Sigmund Freud: A Pavlovian Critique, by Harry K. Wells. (Volume II of Pavlov and Freud.) New York: International Publishers, 1960, 252 p.] is based upon a one-sided but commonly-held view of what constitutes philosophic materialism in the field of mental disorder. Thus, it requires an attention out of proportion to its actual merits, for, in my opinion, this book makes little or no contribution to a critique of Freud and tends to harden and dogmatize certain limitations of Pavlov. At bottom, it is an attack upon any and every psychological approach to mental disorder.

On the surface we are confronted with what appears to be...