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Pavlov and Freud. 1. Ivan P. Pavlov. Towards a scientific psychology and psychiatry
Book
reviews
303
Psychiatric Services at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, although her work on obesity deals with adults as well as children. In the period during which she worked, Dr. BRUCH points out that there has been a remarkable change in the medical approach to obesity. In the thirties it was fashionable to think in terms of endocrine disorder-and a misuse was made of FROELICH’S description of a fat Viennese child, so that the Froelich syndrome was commonly diagnosed. She describes how she failed to find evidence of endocrine disorder, and was led to the study of psychological and social factors, to be followed by a psychoanalytic approach to fatness. Dr. BRUCH describes her findings in detail, and gives a good review of the most important research done elsewhere. She delivers a scathing attack on the fallacies of the statistical approach-and illustrates it by quoting the work of FLEMMING QUAADE in Denmark-emphasizing that for her the clinical approach is supreme. Unfortunately this seems to me the basic defect of her book, for although there is still room for clinical studies, psychiatry and medicine can only truly progress by the use of scientific methods, the formulation of hypotheses, and the putting of these formulations to the test. Her work also suffers greatly from the selection of material-a difficulty encountered in the study of almost every psychosomatic disorder by the clinician functioning in the clinic or consulting room. In spite of these drawbacks, the book is well worth reading. It appears at a certain historical stage in the development of psychosomatic medicine. The case. study, the differentiations of groups of fat people, the psychotherapy of fat people-all indeed interesting, but all in need of confirmation by the very statistical and research techniques to which Dr. BRUCH seems opposed, and which, pace Dr. BRUCH, the Danes so well understand. Clinical study must be the sketch out of which a full and correct picture is built. Dr. BRUCH has been the pioneer worker in this field of obesity and she has provided us with a brilliant sketch of her subject. The finished picture must be built up on the results of scientific research. DENIS LEIGH
H. K. WELLS: Pavlov and Freud. 1. Ivan P. Pavlov. Towards a Scientific Psychology and Psychiatry. Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1956. 224 pp., 21s. DR. WELLS has taken on a fascinating task in comparing and contrasting the work of FREUD with that of PAVLOV. The lives of the two men run concurrently-FREUD being born seven years after PAVLOV, in 1856, and died in 1939, three years after PAVLOV’S death. Both men can truly be classed amongst the giants of medicine, both wrought a revolution in man’s study of mental functioning, and both are linked with separate ideologies which now divide the world. The objective experimental approach followed by PAVLOV, and the introspective analytical approach of FREUD are as far apart as the political worlds of the East and the West. In the first of his projected two volumes, Dr. WELLS, at present a lecturer at the Jefferson School of Social Sciences in New York, describes the life, work and ideas of PAVLOV. In tha second volume yet to come he will discuss the life and work of FREUD. This first volume is a good augury for the second, for although it is marred at times by hyperbole, Dr. WELLS tells a fascinating story clearly and well. PAVLOV’S writings, and those of his followers, are, it must be confessed, often extremely dull and repetitious. Until comparatively recently his ideas have found little to recommend themselves to psychiatrists in the Western World, but a new wave of interest has arisen, probably linked with the rise to power of the Soviet Union. In France enthusiastic followers of Pavlovian theory abound, and in psychology these theories are being applied to clinical problems, albeit in a somewhat naive manner. Conditioning is fashionable; in spite of this however, PAVLOV’S work does offer the possibility of an objective study of psychiatric illness and it behoves the research worker to acquaint himself with basic postulates. Dr. WELL’S book is the best contemporary study of PAVLOVand his work, and as such will be greatly in demand. It also has the great advantage of being reasonably priced. DENIS LEIGH
reviews
303
Psychiatric Services at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, although her work on obesity deals with adults as well as children. In the period during which she worked, Dr. BRUCH points out that there has been a remarkable change in the medical approach to obesity. In the thirties it was fashionable to think in terms of endocrine disorder-and a misuse was made of FROELICH’S description of a fat Viennese child, so that the Froelich syndrome was commonly diagnosed. She describes how she failed to find evidence of endocrine disorder, and was led to the study of psychological and social factors, to be followed by a psychoanalytic approach to fatness. Dr. BRUCH describes her findings in detail, and gives a good review of the most important research done elsewhere. She delivers a scathing attack on the fallacies of the statistical approach-and illustrates it by quoting the work of FLEMMING QUAADE in Denmark-emphasizing that for her the clinical approach is supreme. Unfortunately this seems to me the basic defect of her book, for although there is still room for clinical studies, psychiatry and medicine can only truly progress by the use of scientific methods, the formulation of hypotheses, and the putting of these formulations to the test. Her work also suffers greatly from the selection of material-a difficulty encountered in the study of almost every psychosomatic disorder by the clinician functioning in the clinic or consulting room. In spite of these drawbacks, the book is well worth reading. It appears at a certain historical stage in the development of psychosomatic medicine. The case. study, the differentiations of groups of fat people, the psychotherapy of fat people-all indeed interesting, but all in need of confirmation by the very statistical and research techniques to which Dr. BRUCH seems opposed, and which, pace Dr. BRUCH, the Danes so well understand. Clinical study must be the sketch out of which a full and correct picture is built. Dr. BRUCH has been the pioneer worker in this field of obesity and she has provided us with a brilliant sketch of her subject. The finished picture must be built up on the results of scientific research. DENIS LEIGH
H. K. WELLS: Pavlov and Freud. 1. Ivan P. Pavlov. Towards a Scientific Psychology and Psychiatry. Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1956. 224 pp., 21s. DR. WELLS has taken on a fascinating task in comparing and contrasting the work of FREUD with that of PAVLOV. The lives of the two men run concurrently-FREUD being born seven years after PAVLOV, in 1856, and died in 1939, three years after PAVLOV’S death. Both men can truly be classed amongst the giants of medicine, both wrought a revolution in man’s study of mental functioning, and both are linked with separate ideologies which now divide the world. The objective experimental approach followed by PAVLOV, and the introspective analytical approach of FREUD are as far apart as the political worlds of the East and the West. In the first of his projected two volumes, Dr. WELLS, at present a lecturer at the Jefferson School of Social Sciences in New York, describes the life, work and ideas of PAVLOV. In tha second volume yet to come he will discuss the life and work of FREUD. This first volume is a good augury for the second, for although it is marred at times by hyperbole, Dr. WELLS tells a fascinating story clearly and well. PAVLOV’S writings, and those of his followers, are, it must be confessed, often extremely dull and repetitious. Until comparatively recently his ideas have found little to recommend themselves to psychiatrists in the Western World, but a new wave of interest has arisen, probably linked with the rise to power of the Soviet Union. In France enthusiastic followers of Pavlovian theory abound, and in psychology these theories are being applied to clinical problems, albeit in a somewhat naive manner. Conditioning is fashionable; in spite of this however, PAVLOV’S work does offer the possibility of an objective study of psychiatric illness and it behoves the research worker to acquaint himself with basic postulates. Dr. WELL’S book is the best contemporary study of PAVLOVand his work, and as such will be greatly in demand. It also has the great advantage of being reasonably priced. DENIS LEIGH