A short history of psychiatry

Journal

of P?ychosomatlc Research, 1961Vol 5,pp 147to154 PergamonPres? Ltd Pr1nte3 inNorthern Ireland

BOOK

DORIS ODLUM

The Mind of Your Child.

W

REVIEWS

and

G

Foyle

Ltd

, London, 1960, 108 pp , 4s

THIS 1sa conc~e and clearly written book of advlce for parents on the emotlonal

development of the chdd from babyhood to preadolescence After a rather slow start, It offers sound and up-to-date advlce on the common problems that parents may meet m their chdd, mcludmg that of the eleven plus exammatlon It seems to be deslgned for those of a reasonable standard of education and It may well help them to avoId a number of mistakes m upbrmgmg How far any such book cdn help the over-anxious parent IS a questlon that 1s not easy to answer, It certamly cannot take the place-m real trouble-of personal support and help by someone skdled m these matters W WARREN

Ueuro-Psychopharmacology. Proceedings of the First International Congress of Neuro-Psychopharmacology, Rome, 1958. Edlted by P B BRADLEY, P DENIKER and C RADOLJCO-THOMAS Elsevler

Pubhshmg Co Amsterdam,

London, New York, Prmceton,

727 pp , f6 15 0

IT IS hard to Justify the purchase of this beautifully produced dnd m every way handsome volume, for the price 1s high, and the material already somewhat out-of-date Have we not arrived at the stage when medlcal pubhshmg houses should not take on the prmtmg of symposia such as this? The proper place for research pubhcatlons IS the research Journal What so often happens IS that there IS only a re-hashmg of old material, a synopsis of an author’s previous work, and a good deal of verbdl Interchange between the different partlclpants The editors have done an excellent Job here with their mdterlal, and many of the myor lrrltatlons of the prmted symposmm are avoided But was It really necessary? For those who are Interested the volume contains the proceedings of the First Internatronal Congress of Neuro-Psychopharmacology-a Congress attended by more than 500 delegates The Congress discussed the followmg subjects --The Methods and Analysis of DrugInduced Behavlour m Ammals, and of Abnormal Mentdl States m Man Comparisons were made between men and ammals under the miluence of psychotropic drugs, and there were special sessions on the endogenous psychoses, the effects of the psychotroplc drugs on the Psychlatrlc Services and so on 133 short papers are also prmted repel tmg orlgmal observations m this field, ranging from drug ,ictlon dnd endocrme behavlour, to the effect of tranqudhzers on the mldbram At the time of pubhcatlon these papers are slxteen months out-of-date-a period which speaks for itself Some dlmmutlon m the spate of medlcal pubhcatlons must occur I suggest that a start could be made m this field of the pubhcatlon of symposia DENS

ERWIN H ACKERKNECHT

A Short History of Psychiatry.

Translated by S Wolff

LEIGH

Hafner Publlshmg

Co, New York, London, 98 pp , 25s THIS IS an excellent

precls of the hIstorIca development of psychiatry, an enormous amount of mformatlon being compressed mto its 98 pages Its purpose 1s presumably to stimulate Interest m this field, for of necessity much of the mformatlon given has otherwlse httle meanmg For instance, hsts of writers who contributed durmg a certam period mean nothmg unless they are to be used as a gmde for further reference Perhaps there ISJust a lrttle too much detad, and the book would have 147

148

Book

reviews

made mole mterestrng readm g If the minor names had been omitted EngIG psychuury gets little mention, and, as IS the danger 111such books, a mlsleadmg unprcss~on may be given by the brevity of the text For Instance, Bcthlem Hospital has two references, one to openmg as cl hospital m 1377, dnd the other m d note on John Ha&m--“tJastdm (I 798, he was dpothccaly to the famous and notorious Bedlam Hospital 111 London litI he was dIsmIssed m 1816) ’ Bethlem may habe been both famous and notolmus, and HClslcm wds Indeed dlsnussed, but the statement does JustIce to neuher What I> needed, rather than precls hlstory, JS d series of monographs dcahng with the histot ical development of certam concepts. OL with biogrdphicat studlcs But I< this llttle book serves to stltnulCtte Jntcrest m the sublect It may h,Jve contributed somcthlng toward tills godI

GRAYTLY

m,mn

DICK-REAL)

hlcdlc,ll

Books

Chddhwth

Ltd

Fear. Fourth EdItIon revised 1960, XV, 266 pp , 12s 6d

althout

, London,

and

enlarged

Wm

Hcme-

GRANTLY DICK-RI-AU wds m_ule of the stuff of pioneers, !Ixcd in his purpose. wrth ‘L bulnlng faith in the truth of h,s message, dnd wth ai emotmndl, even mystlcL’l, approach to his xlb;cct All n15 books are worth the rcadlng and this edition of Clillr/~?r~t/z ~fflror~t Ftjn/. complctcd just bcforc his dc‘tth 1s conqxltlng 111the Inieilsity of feehn 2 with which It IS WI Itten Interspersed \\lth homlhes, .~nd \o, 1, the matrix of !IIS dutoblogr,iphlcal det~ik \ihlch, .~lthough sclltlmcn~rll. Lire never mawkishly method, his own obscrv,,tlons and thoughts on all to do M 1111the proceiscs ot chllabllt1-I No doctv1 In prxtlce could f‘ul to bencfrt from rcadln g this book, it IS‘1wonder ful ex,m~ple of how the psychosomatic app~oxh to medlclne can ~IlumJnate a problem DIG K-R~%D’s works M 111become the &SSIL\ of the future i,>r rc‘tdcrs of this Journal they art‘ of LII?I~LIC lnterc\t DrhlS 1 I I(,H

TIII OI~~IC~ Lmr Zur Fanulrmumwelt Verl,!: Stuttgart, 153 pp , Dhl 8

des Schwophrenen

(Swdcrl~~i

t dct

Psychi”)

Ernst

Klet

IV the11 double edItIon for August;Scptember 1959. the publlshcrs of Pc)(hr present ‘I collcctlon of papers by n tedni of American psychlatrlsts and psychlatl IC social workers, headed by Prof Tlit,orxxxt in schnqhrenlc ~llncss They see It ‘L\ C~mdnlfestation decelopmcnt, a Ictrc,!t from Interpcrsondl reldtlonshlps and tram realny By an evhaustlcc Investsgatlon of the fCunlly cnvlronment in which then patients grew up, they throw light on the clrcumstances in which these fClllure\ occurred The personalltlcs ,Ind roles within tllc fdmlly of either parent, and maritCll as well ds pdrcnt-chltd relatlonshlps xc dcscrtbcd, revedhng many abnormCd tedtures The bearmg of these on the personality development of the pdtlenls IS dlacusscd m the I+$t dmong\t other things of dlthcultles caused In psycho-scuual development by tdck of adequate pnrent hgures with whom the patrent can Identify, by faulty and often mutually de-valuing and destructtvc leldtlonships between the pxents, and between them dnd the child who became a patient The authors stress the Importance of malntdlnlng cont,lct with the f‘unlllcs of their pdtlents not only rn order to pirln ‘t