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L.S.D., personality and experience
Book reviews
246 URSULA KLEINPETER:
StGungen der psycho-somatischen Entwicklung nach Schldelhirntraumen im Kindesalter (Disturbances of psychosomatic development following head injury in children). VEB Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1971.
THIS monograph reports a detailed study of 581 children seen at the University of Restock following head injury between 1959 and 1964. Boys outnumbered girls by two to one, and head injury was particularly associated with low intelligence, large families, and poor standards of parental care. Subsequent school performance was impaired in one quarter of those mildly concussed, while after more severe injury marked retardation was three times as common as in the general population. The hyperactive syndrome was noted in nearly half, being especially common in those under eight. A ‘low drive’ syndrome was associated with greater age and fronto-temporal injury. The incidence of epilepsy, and of more minor symptoms, is discussed, and eight cases who survived a decorticate state are described in detail. There is much material here, although the presentation is somewhat pedestrian and repetitive. Comparisons with previous work (96 German references, eight English, and one French) are scattered throughout the book, which does not make for easy reading. However, the extent and depth of the study will ensure its importance for those specialising in this field. JULIAN CANDY
HARRIET LINTON BARR, ROBERT J. LONGS, ROBERT R. HOLT,
LEO GOLDBERGER and GEORGES. KLEIN: L.S.D., Personality and Experience. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1972. pp. 247. Price $4.50.
EITHERL.S.D. or a placebo, was administered to fifty unemployed actors during 1959. The authors hoped that by studying a drug which modified consciousness, they might themselves modify psychodynamic theories ofconsciousness. In the event the gap between Freudian metapsychology and laboratory data proved unbridgeable. A lucid and erudite review of psychoanalytic theories of consciousness is the only monument to the original intent. At all other levels the book is a success. The experimental work is painstaking and the results arc intelligently analysed. The authors clear and self-critical account of their methodology should be of interest to anyone doing research into the psychic effects of drugs or experimental situations. The chapter relating L.S.D. experience to personality is fascinating. Easygoing stable subjects found LSD. pleasurable and elating and showed little behavioural change. Neurotic inadequate individuals experienced more marked mood and behavioural change. Extreme anxiety and terror of ‘going crazy’ occurred in competent, but overcontrolled individuals. The placebo effects were mild but bore the same relationship to personality as the L.S.D. effects. PETER NOBLE
W. LAWRENCEGULIK: Hearing-Physiology ALTHOUGH
and Psychophysics. Oxford University
Press, 1972.
written primarily for students of sensory physiology and sensory psychology, this book is likely to be of wider interest as a result of the author’s attention to the general question of conceptual and theoretical modification required by emerging experimental data. After introductory chapters on the basic physics of sound and on the anatomy and electrophysiology of the auditory system, there follow discussion of the principal theories of hearing and an analysis of simple and complex auditory phenomena in the light of current knowledge. The author’s prose style is enviably lucid and both the textual layout and binding quality are aesthetically pleasing. Excellent line diagrams enhance the writing in the exposition of some of the more complex phenomena. The clinically minded general psychiatrist will probably not find much of direct interest here though others, while baulking at f4.50 for a personal copy, will enjoy it as part of a short library browse. A. C. MACFIE
246 URSULA KLEINPETER:
StGungen der psycho-somatischen Entwicklung nach Schldelhirntraumen im Kindesalter (Disturbances of psychosomatic development following head injury in children). VEB Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1971.
THIS monograph reports a detailed study of 581 children seen at the University of Restock following head injury between 1959 and 1964. Boys outnumbered girls by two to one, and head injury was particularly associated with low intelligence, large families, and poor standards of parental care. Subsequent school performance was impaired in one quarter of those mildly concussed, while after more severe injury marked retardation was three times as common as in the general population. The hyperactive syndrome was noted in nearly half, being especially common in those under eight. A ‘low drive’ syndrome was associated with greater age and fronto-temporal injury. The incidence of epilepsy, and of more minor symptoms, is discussed, and eight cases who survived a decorticate state are described in detail. There is much material here, although the presentation is somewhat pedestrian and repetitive. Comparisons with previous work (96 German references, eight English, and one French) are scattered throughout the book, which does not make for easy reading. However, the extent and depth of the study will ensure its importance for those specialising in this field. JULIAN CANDY
HARRIET LINTON BARR, ROBERT J. LONGS, ROBERT R. HOLT,
LEO GOLDBERGER and GEORGES. KLEIN: L.S.D., Personality and Experience. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1972. pp. 247. Price $4.50.
EITHERL.S.D. or a placebo, was administered to fifty unemployed actors during 1959. The authors hoped that by studying a drug which modified consciousness, they might themselves modify psychodynamic theories ofconsciousness. In the event the gap between Freudian metapsychology and laboratory data proved unbridgeable. A lucid and erudite review of psychoanalytic theories of consciousness is the only monument to the original intent. At all other levels the book is a success. The experimental work is painstaking and the results arc intelligently analysed. The authors clear and self-critical account of their methodology should be of interest to anyone doing research into the psychic effects of drugs or experimental situations. The chapter relating L.S.D. experience to personality is fascinating. Easygoing stable subjects found LSD. pleasurable and elating and showed little behavioural change. Neurotic inadequate individuals experienced more marked mood and behavioural change. Extreme anxiety and terror of ‘going crazy’ occurred in competent, but overcontrolled individuals. The placebo effects were mild but bore the same relationship to personality as the L.S.D. effects. PETER NOBLE
W. LAWRENCEGULIK: Hearing-Physiology ALTHOUGH
and Psychophysics. Oxford University
Press, 1972.
written primarily for students of sensory physiology and sensory psychology, this book is likely to be of wider interest as a result of the author’s attention to the general question of conceptual and theoretical modification required by emerging experimental data. After introductory chapters on the basic physics of sound and on the anatomy and electrophysiology of the auditory system, there follow discussion of the principal theories of hearing and an analysis of simple and complex auditory phenomena in the light of current knowledge. The author’s prose style is enviably lucid and both the textual layout and binding quality are aesthetically pleasing. Excellent line diagrams enhance the writing in the exposition of some of the more complex phenomena. The clinically minded general psychiatrist will probably not find much of direct interest here though others, while baulking at f4.50 for a personal copy, will enjoy it as part of a short library browse. A. C. MACFIE