Centaur. Essays on the history of medical ideas

Centaur. Essays on the history of medical ideas

414 BOOK J. Chron. Dis. April, 1959 REVIEWS diagnose later” on the part of many physicians. \Vhat seems to be needed is not a document praising an...

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414

BOOK

J. Chron. Dis. April, 1959

REVIEWS

diagnose later” on the part of many physicians. \Vhat seems to be needed is not a document praising antibiotics to the skies, but a critical, dispassionate judgment of the role of these drugs and the problems attendant on their use. This book does not fuffif! such a need. Robert CENTAUR. M.D.

ESSAYS New York,

ON THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL IDEAS. 1958, MD Publications, Inc. Pp. 715, indexed.

G. Petersdorf

By F&l& Marti-IbAfiez, Price $6.00.

The author of this fat “new” book is an extraordinary phenomenon. Spanish-born, but a resident of the IJnited States for the past 20 years, he is probably the most successful medical His showiest enterprise is the throwaway MD Medicel Newsmagazine journalist in the country. (which many physicians apparently do not throw away). The magazine is printed in Time format, and serves up a moderately entertaining mixture of medical news, drug house earning reports, medical history, sex, and psychiatry. Centaur, however, is an irritating and dull scissors-and-paste collection of material previously published (for the most part) in Marti-IbBfiez’s own journals. There are numerous names and the mechanism by which insulin liberates hexokinase from facts (some of them wrong: “. “) but little in the way of unifying thought. The prose the anterior hypophysis is known is at times purplish, at times pedantic, almost always extremely mortal. The longer pieces are so disjointed as to seem dictated on the fly, in bits, on different days, and then never subjected to blue-pencilling. Some of the psychoanalytic stuff is appalling: “Even chess moves have a profound psychoanalytic meaning. Some players constantly protect their Queen-Mother in order to attain greater power over the King-Father. To crown Pawns and to exchange them for Queens is to reinforce the attack against the King, by converting Pawns-weak little men-(psychoanalytically interpreted as castrated) into strong Amazon-like women with a tremendous sex and war drive.” Topping off the performance is a collection, at the end, of what must be close to every editorial ever written for MD Medical Newsmagazine. It seems incredible that the author should have had the gall to consider these pieces deserving of republication, and even more amazing that he felt it necessary to include three editorials documenting the success of his magazine! The life and personality of Marti-Ibifiez, written His own writings, probably make fascinating reading.

by a perceptive, critical journalist, however, are a dreary business.

would

Louis Lasagna

UNDERSTANDING APHASIA, A Guide for Family and Friends. By Martha L. Taylor, M.A. Patient Publication No. 2-1958, The Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, New York University-Bellevue Medical Center. Pp. 48. Price SOC. (Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 400 East 34th Street, New York 16, New York.) This is an attractive, well-written, SO-page booklet which should indeed prove to be a very useful guide for the family and friends of patients with aphasia. It is organized around 40 common questions about aphasia which are listed in a Table of Contents. The short answers to these questions given in nontechnical language make up the body of the booklet. A useful check list of “Do’s and Don’&” for dealing with aphasia patients and a 7-page description of services available through the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and The National Society for Crippled Children and .-\dults are also included. The general subjects covered by the questions include the causes of aphasia, the functional significance of the various specific disabilities, common concomitant mental and physical symptoms, and management, therapy, and prognosis of the condition. Language training is described as the only direct treatment, and perhaps the gravest shortcoming in the book is the failure to spell out clearly that even with the best treatment many patients fail to make progress. The author’s therapeutic enthusiasm (based on “experience” rather than scientific evidence) may serve the desirable goal of encouraging families to bring in patients for early treatment. It may,