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Dementia
BOOK REVIEWS
111
of attitude and thought. Other chapters fail to give a fully updated coverage. How many behaviourists would, as Malcolm Jeeves suggests, avoid reference as far as possible to “hypothetical, unobservable mental processes”? (p. 15). The reference (p. 19) to Eysenck and Wilson’s 1973 work on Freudian theory as a ‘recent book’ also seems an anachronism. John Court’s chapter on behaviour modification would have gained by some discussion of its current equivocal relationship to experimental learning psychology. His chapter on homosexuality draws uncritically on studies from the 1960s to describe different types of homosexual, and the lengthy section on ‘treatment’ seems unwarranted in view of current practice. The categorization of homosexual practice as ‘sin’ and the ambiguous stance towards legal penalties will be invidious to many readers. The ethical criterion used here and elsewhere is scriptural authority, and the book constantly equates ‘a Christian perspective’ with this particular approach. Other complex issues, such as the relationship between psychological health and spiritual growth, lack a full discussion. Lastly, for all its admitted specialized scope, the book has disappointly little information on some key areas. For example, Roger Murphy’s careful focus on the work of one scholar, R. J. Goldman, could well have been supplemented by a more general review of the development of religious ideas in childhood. A. ERSKINE
B. MAHENDRA:
Demenriu. MTP
Press, Lancaster, Lanes. (1984). ix + 221 pages. f20.00.
This book offers a very medical account of the problem of dementia. It rather eschews the psychological and social aspects other than rightly emphasizing that dementia is essentially a clinical/psychological concept rather than a term to describe a particular type of disease process. There is an inadequate chapter on the psychological assessment of dementia but the chapter on management ignores psychological and social interventions. Reality orientation does not even get a mention! Mahendra’s book is unusual in that it begins with a history of the concept of dementia and ends with a pathography of a number of famous people who, like Winston Churchill, presumably suffered a form of dementing illness in their later years. These are weak contributions. In between these are descriptions of the different types of dementing illness, their pathologies, the use of medical investigative techniques (EEG, computerized tomography etc.) and the medical aspects of management. This book is therefore not likely to interest most readers of this journal. Those who specialize in dealing with elderly clients may feel that it is appropriate to keep up with medical advances in the field of the dementias, especially as these could have implications for psychological practice. In this context Mahendra’s book could be of passing interest were it not for the fact that the same general information is provided by a number of other sources which are better informed and offer views that are less contentious. This is therefore a book that can be safely ignored by behaviour therapists. E. MILLER
W. W. TRYON (Ed.): Behavioral Assessment in Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York (1985). x + 309 pages. 828.95. This fifteenth volume in the Springer series on behaviour therapy and behavioural medicine starts with an introductory chapter. which is followed by chapters on the assessment of obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, ambulatory activity in chronic disease, chronic pain and human activity, and ends with a chapter reviewing quantitative findings in the assessment of human activity. As noted by the editor, “special emphasis is given to the highest-quality measurements that are currently available in the areas covered”. By highest-quality measurements are meant those that refer to overt rather than covert behaviours, are obtained objectively by instruments and are based on non-arbitrary and standard units. These requirements result in the contributors mainly reviewing measurements of the physical consequences of the behaviours under discussion. The book successfully reflects the intended emphasis. However, while reading the book one is constantly conscious of an unfortunate aspect of current assessment techniques, that the more objective and precise the methods are, the more expensive and the less widely available they seem to be. Considering the book’s title, it is rather surprising that the general principles that have become a hallmark of behavioural assessment such as adoption of a functional analytic approach, receive no coverage. Despite this, most readers of this journal, especially those involved in research, are likely to find this book of interest. M. JAHANSHAHI
111
of attitude and thought. Other chapters fail to give a fully updated coverage. How many behaviourists would, as Malcolm Jeeves suggests, avoid reference as far as possible to “hypothetical, unobservable mental processes”? (p. 15). The reference (p. 19) to Eysenck and Wilson’s 1973 work on Freudian theory as a ‘recent book’ also seems an anachronism. John Court’s chapter on behaviour modification would have gained by some discussion of its current equivocal relationship to experimental learning psychology. His chapter on homosexuality draws uncritically on studies from the 1960s to describe different types of homosexual, and the lengthy section on ‘treatment’ seems unwarranted in view of current practice. The categorization of homosexual practice as ‘sin’ and the ambiguous stance towards legal penalties will be invidious to many readers. The ethical criterion used here and elsewhere is scriptural authority, and the book constantly equates ‘a Christian perspective’ with this particular approach. Other complex issues, such as the relationship between psychological health and spiritual growth, lack a full discussion. Lastly, for all its admitted specialized scope, the book has disappointly little information on some key areas. For example, Roger Murphy’s careful focus on the work of one scholar, R. J. Goldman, could well have been supplemented by a more general review of the development of religious ideas in childhood. A. ERSKINE
B. MAHENDRA:
Demenriu. MTP
Press, Lancaster, Lanes. (1984). ix + 221 pages. f20.00.
This book offers a very medical account of the problem of dementia. It rather eschews the psychological and social aspects other than rightly emphasizing that dementia is essentially a clinical/psychological concept rather than a term to describe a particular type of disease process. There is an inadequate chapter on the psychological assessment of dementia but the chapter on management ignores psychological and social interventions. Reality orientation does not even get a mention! Mahendra’s book is unusual in that it begins with a history of the concept of dementia and ends with a pathography of a number of famous people who, like Winston Churchill, presumably suffered a form of dementing illness in their later years. These are weak contributions. In between these are descriptions of the different types of dementing illness, their pathologies, the use of medical investigative techniques (EEG, computerized tomography etc.) and the medical aspects of management. This book is therefore not likely to interest most readers of this journal. Those who specialize in dealing with elderly clients may feel that it is appropriate to keep up with medical advances in the field of the dementias, especially as these could have implications for psychological practice. In this context Mahendra’s book could be of passing interest were it not for the fact that the same general information is provided by a number of other sources which are better informed and offer views that are less contentious. This is therefore a book that can be safely ignored by behaviour therapists. E. MILLER
W. W. TRYON (Ed.): Behavioral Assessment in Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York (1985). x + 309 pages. 828.95. This fifteenth volume in the Springer series on behaviour therapy and behavioural medicine starts with an introductory chapter. which is followed by chapters on the assessment of obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, ambulatory activity in chronic disease, chronic pain and human activity, and ends with a chapter reviewing quantitative findings in the assessment of human activity. As noted by the editor, “special emphasis is given to the highest-quality measurements that are currently available in the areas covered”. By highest-quality measurements are meant those that refer to overt rather than covert behaviours, are obtained objectively by instruments and are based on non-arbitrary and standard units. These requirements result in the contributors mainly reviewing measurements of the physical consequences of the behaviours under discussion. The book successfully reflects the intended emphasis. However, while reading the book one is constantly conscious of an unfortunate aspect of current assessment techniques, that the more objective and precise the methods are, the more expensive and the less widely available they seem to be. Considering the book’s title, it is rather surprising that the general principles that have become a hallmark of behavioural assessment such as adoption of a functional analytic approach, receive no coverage. Despite this, most readers of this journal, especially those involved in research, are likely to find this book of interest. M. JAHANSHAHI