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Current Psychiatric Therapies, vol 23
BOOK REVIEWS Current Psychiatric Therapies, vol 23 Edited by Jules H. Massennan, Orlando, Aa, Grone & Stratton. 1986.320 pp, $59.50.
• Where psychiatry is today and where it is heading are explored by 29 contributors to the latest volume in this annual series. John Talbott comments on the problems created by the advent of increasing amounts of therapy being done by psychologists and social workers, as well as those produced by investor-owned hospital chains and the current malpractice crisis. Carol Nadelson and Malkah Notman discuss psychotherapy and women. Changes in female roles have produced altered expectations and confusion for many women. It is important that therapists realize that women communicate their values in subtle as well as overt ways. The chapter on childhood and adolescence stresses the importance of protecting the child's self-esteem. Full insight is not essential to successful therapy. Judd Marmor discusses psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy. The need for lessened frequency of sessions is noted and correlated with lessened dependence on the therapist. Marmor is convinced that insight is useful but that it is not the essential ingredient that produces changes; rather, change grows out of the quality of the doctor-patient relationship. Another chapter considers long-term psychotherapy of rape victims. Overprotectiveness must eventually be stopped; the main goal is the acceptance and integration of the rape experience into one's life and the understanding that thoughts of the experience will continue to resurface. Training psychotherapists for work with ethnic groups is explored. It is
SEPTEMBER 1986· VOL 27 • NO 9
noted that one who is ignorant ofor indifferent to ethnic variations may miss and ignore psychopathology, labeling it a cultural peculiarity. The reverse, it should be added, may also occur. George Pollock's contribution is an evaluation ofthe psychoanalytic treatment of older adults, with special reference to the "mourning-liberation" process. This event enables the past to become the past, allowing for a better present and future. Successful aging requires the ability to mourn for what no longer exists. The chapter on psychopharmacology notes the superiority of concomitant drug therapy and psychotherapy in anxiety states. (Surprisingly, antidepressants, although certainly worthwhile in some anxiety states, are not noted here for their most significant role in depression itself.) In the chapter on post-traumatic stress disorders in Vietnam veterans, Kolb stresses the value of group therapy in that it protects against intensive transference and dependency. Slawson considers the crucial problem of psychiatric malpractice. He is convinced that patients do not sue physicians whom they like. Disruption of the patient-physician relationship is an almost consistent finding in psychiatric malpractice cases. The chapter on world health and community psychiatry leads off with Masserman's address to the World Congress of Community Psychiatry, held in Bombay, India, in January 1985. Dr. DeSousa, the Program Chairman, emphasizes the use of spiritual psychotherapy. He states: "Penance and fasting help to reduce guilt.... Many a patient suffering from depression is better treated in this manner than [if he is] loaded with tricyclic antidepressants or confused
with analytical psychotherapy. " This would probably be questioned by third party payers. The final section is devoted to Soviet psychiatry. It seems that our Soviet colleagues are as deeply concerned with etiology and diagnosis as we are. Dr. Masserman's annual compendium continues to fascinate by its variety of subject matter and therapeutic approaches. Wilfred Dorfman. M.D. Brooklyn. N. Y.
Health, Illness, and Families: A Life-Span Perspective Edited by Dennis C. Thrk and Robert D. Kerns. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1985.380 pp,
$32.95.
• In their preface, Turk and Kerns argue that, while the role of the family in illness has been given considerable attention in medical sociology and psychosomatic medicine, the knowledge acquired is "not being brought into the mainstream of behavioral medicine. " This book is designed to bridge that gap. Included are chapters by such leaders in the field of behavioral medicine as Judith Rodin, Barbara Melamed, and Suzanne Bennett Johnson, among others. Each chapter has a standard format: historical perspective, current state of knowledge, research and methodologic issues, and future directions. The opening chapter by Turk and Kerns serves as an introduction by examining characteristics of families that are important in health and illness and by reviewing family systems theory, family stress theory, role theories, and a transactional model. Chapter 2 deals with the family's role in the child's concepts of health and
669
• Where psychiatry is today and where it is heading are explored by 29 contributors to the latest volume in this annual series. John Talbott comments on the problems created by the advent of increasing amounts of therapy being done by psychologists and social workers, as well as those produced by investor-owned hospital chains and the current malpractice crisis. Carol Nadelson and Malkah Notman discuss psychotherapy and women. Changes in female roles have produced altered expectations and confusion for many women. It is important that therapists realize that women communicate their values in subtle as well as overt ways. The chapter on childhood and adolescence stresses the importance of protecting the child's self-esteem. Full insight is not essential to successful therapy. Judd Marmor discusses psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy. The need for lessened frequency of sessions is noted and correlated with lessened dependence on the therapist. Marmor is convinced that insight is useful but that it is not the essential ingredient that produces changes; rather, change grows out of the quality of the doctor-patient relationship. Another chapter considers long-term psychotherapy of rape victims. Overprotectiveness must eventually be stopped; the main goal is the acceptance and integration of the rape experience into one's life and the understanding that thoughts of the experience will continue to resurface. Training psychotherapists for work with ethnic groups is explored. It is
SEPTEMBER 1986· VOL 27 • NO 9
noted that one who is ignorant ofor indifferent to ethnic variations may miss and ignore psychopathology, labeling it a cultural peculiarity. The reverse, it should be added, may also occur. George Pollock's contribution is an evaluation ofthe psychoanalytic treatment of older adults, with special reference to the "mourning-liberation" process. This event enables the past to become the past, allowing for a better present and future. Successful aging requires the ability to mourn for what no longer exists. The chapter on psychopharmacology notes the superiority of concomitant drug therapy and psychotherapy in anxiety states. (Surprisingly, antidepressants, although certainly worthwhile in some anxiety states, are not noted here for their most significant role in depression itself.) In the chapter on post-traumatic stress disorders in Vietnam veterans, Kolb stresses the value of group therapy in that it protects against intensive transference and dependency. Slawson considers the crucial problem of psychiatric malpractice. He is convinced that patients do not sue physicians whom they like. Disruption of the patient-physician relationship is an almost consistent finding in psychiatric malpractice cases. The chapter on world health and community psychiatry leads off with Masserman's address to the World Congress of Community Psychiatry, held in Bombay, India, in January 1985. Dr. DeSousa, the Program Chairman, emphasizes the use of spiritual psychotherapy. He states: "Penance and fasting help to reduce guilt.... Many a patient suffering from depression is better treated in this manner than [if he is] loaded with tricyclic antidepressants or confused
with analytical psychotherapy. " This would probably be questioned by third party payers. The final section is devoted to Soviet psychiatry. It seems that our Soviet colleagues are as deeply concerned with etiology and diagnosis as we are. Dr. Masserman's annual compendium continues to fascinate by its variety of subject matter and therapeutic approaches. Wilfred Dorfman. M.D. Brooklyn. N. Y.
Health, Illness, and Families: A Life-Span Perspective Edited by Dennis C. Thrk and Robert D. Kerns. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1985.380 pp,
$32.95.
• In their preface, Turk and Kerns argue that, while the role of the family in illness has been given considerable attention in medical sociology and psychosomatic medicine, the knowledge acquired is "not being brought into the mainstream of behavioral medicine. " This book is designed to bridge that gap. Included are chapters by such leaders in the field of behavioral medicine as Judith Rodin, Barbara Melamed, and Suzanne Bennett Johnson, among others. Each chapter has a standard format: historical perspective, current state of knowledge, research and methodologic issues, and future directions. The opening chapter by Turk and Kerns serves as an introduction by examining characteristics of families that are important in health and illness and by reviewing family systems theory, family stress theory, role theories, and a transactional model. Chapter 2 deals with the family's role in the child's concepts of health and
669