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Mind and Civilization: Control of the Mind
244
PSYCHOSOMATICS
MAY-JUNE
Book Reviews OLIGOPHRENIA. MENTAL DEFICIENCY IN CHILDREN. M. S. Pevzner. Preface by J. Tiz· ard. New York: The International Behavioral Sciences Series edited by Joseph Wortis, M.D. Consultants Bureau. 1961. Pp. xiii & 406. $15.00. This book is a good illustration of the differences in psycho-physiological approach between American and the Soviet medicine. The author presents her observations on clinical and experimental studies in mental deficiency covering a number of years of careful research. The Western attitude of measuring the degree of deficiency and of classifying it according to etiology is rejected. The author is primarily preoccupied with disturbances of some particular cerebral functions. Such functions in turn are analyzed in terms of Pavlovian neuro-physiology. Reading this presentation may open new and stimulating vistas for the Western understanding of mental deficiency. The book is filled with meticulous clinical observations; a number of ingenious techniques to test various mental functions may be found here. This material may be of value for retraining and rehabilitation of mental defectives and may assist, according to the claim of the author, in a more precise differential diagnosis. A new classification of mental deficiency is suggested with different groups based on differences in psycho-physiological impairment. In the first group, resulting from a diffuse lesion of the cerebral cortex, the lack of "mobility" or "inertia" of the psychological processes presents as the main clinical ,feature. The second type is linked with a diffuse cortical lesion accompanied by deficiency in cerebral circulation resulting in various degrees of hydrocephalus. The same picture of psychophysiological immobility is observed here and also accompanied, to use Pavlovian terminology, by disturbance of the balance between cerebral excitation and inhibition. The author illustrates her principle with some typical cases where one or the other psychopathological pattern is prevalent. The third form is believed to depend on diffuse pathology of the cortex as well as the sub-cortical areas responsible for cerebral associations. Psycho-motor disorders would be prominent in this type and they would clinically present themselves as disturbance of volition and emotionlll control. The author calls such abnormalities the "disturbed emotional-volitional functions" and believes that it may be difficult to distinguish this type of oligophrenia from some cases of childhood schizophrenia, A number of relevant histories are presented
in detail. Although the methodology and conclusions advanced in this work may stir up conSiderable criticism among American psychiatric scientists, this book will still provide challenging and worthwhile reading. . Victor Szyrynski, M.D., Ph.D.
CEREBRAL APOPLEXY. Philip Schwartz, M.D. Springfield, III.: C. C. Thomas, 1961. This slim, erudite book will send many a reader back to his neuroanatomy text and medi- . cal dictionary. The author, a pathologist, divides apoplexy into three types: embolic, arteriosclerotic and hypertensive. An extensive description of the distinctive pathologic lesions is followed by the development of "suggestions" as to their cause and pathogenesis. Emphasis is placed on neurogenic circulatory changes and vasomotor sensitivity. The concept of vascular tears is discredited. Dr. Schwartz has obViously done voluminous reading and painstaking research. Much historical material is included. The author's style is, at times, a bit heavy and the numerous references and footnotes somewhat distracting, The illustrations are beautifully clear and the main points are well emphasized. This book will appeal primarily to the pathologist and neurologist. The general practitioner may find it difficult reading but well worth the effort! Leonard J. Schiff, M.D.
MIND AND CIVILIZATION: CONTROL OF THE MIND. Edited by S. M. Farber and Roger H. L. Wilson. McGraw-Hili, N. Y., 1961. Pp. 340, $6.50. This book is based upon a Symposium held at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center in January 1961. Twenty-siX eminent men, representing the various disciplines of science, psychology, sociology, history, religion, mass communication and political science were gathered together to pool and focus their knowledge and experience toward a·deeper understanding of the forces acting on the human mind. The Symposium was sponsored by the Schering Foundation and Schering Corporation. Various papers and panel discussions considered the physiological and biochemical aspects of brain activity, the influence of drugs,the roles of society, the impact of technology as well as restriction and freedom of the mind. Discussions include the role of DNA and RNA, the potentialities. of brain washing, the possibilities of computing machines competing with man, and
1962
PSYCHOSOMATICS
the effects of relative freedom or lack of freedom under communism as compared to western ideology. An excellent discussion on neurophysiology by Wilder Penfield is included; other unusual papers deal with the role of experience (D. O. Hebb), human potentialities (Aldous Huxley), psychopharmacology (S. S. Kety, James G. Miller, J. O. Cole). Panel discussions, representing the widest possible range of disciplines, cover many fascinating areas. The final one dealt with a) the rationale for the symposium, b) the desirability of avoiding confusion between the cure of illness by drugs and manipulation of the normal person, c) the "vulgarization" of psychiatric knowledge, and d) Freud's psychoanalytic approach. Professors of sociology, psychiatry and political science participated-'-and did communicate not only with each other but with a most critical and questioning audience. The Schering Corporation is to be congratulated on making this unusual symposium possible. W.D.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSANITY by Bernard Hart. Cambridge. Univ. Press. 1st paperback ed. 1962. 127 pages. $1.25 (1st Ed. 1912). This book, first published in 1912, attempts to present the subject matter in a simple, systematic, manner. The general principles enunciated are those of Freud, Jung, Janet, KrafftEbing and lastly Trotter whose two papers on "Herd Instinct" are cited. A brief history of mental disorder is presented, followed by a concept of mental disorder. The phenomena are explained through the mental mechanisms of dissociation, complexes, conflict, regression, repression, projection and phantasy, with a final summation of the significance of conflict. The author insists that brain and physiology are different from mind and psychology and that a different language or terminology must be used for each. "The psychological laws must contain no physiological terms and the physiological laws must contain no psychological terms." Carefully, with adequate description, and with clinical examples, the mental mechanisms are evolved and discussed. Each mechanism is shown to be important and a relative degree of importance is established. Even though repression is shown to be the most used and most important mechanism, dissociation becomes a key mechanism in the authors dogmatic schema. The follOWing quotes not only illustrates this but helps set the scene for the final statement: "The delusions of the insane resemble many of the beliefs and opinions held by the sane. . . . In
245
other respects, however, they differ to such an extent that it is generally easy to decide to which of the two groups a given symptom must be assigned. The beliefs of the sane, whether true or false, are generally supported by the opinion of a class, and are the result of the operation of herd instinct. The delusions of the insane, on the other hand, are not so supported, but are individual aberrations dependent upon factors working in direct opposition to herd instinct. In the insane, disssociation has been carried to a degree which is incompatible with normal thought on behavior, and mental processes are allowed to pursue their course altogether undisturbed by the contradictions presented by the facts of experience. . . . In phantasy the creations of an idle fancy have become the delusions of insanity. A further degree of dissociation has been attained. . . . The fundamental mechanism which underlies the vast group of insanities consists essentially in a dissociation of the herd instincts. . . . The problem is how to obviate the underlying dissociation ... it would be necessary to deal with the conflict which produced it. The primitive instincts cannot be altered, and the attack must be directed against the traditions and codes which obtain their force from the operation of the herd instinct-the ways in which these traditions and codes act upon the mind of the patient." Joseph Joel Friedman, M.D.
INVESTIGATION OF CARBON DIOXIDE THER· APY. G. K. Yacorzynski, Ph.D., Arthur J. At· kinson, M.D., Jerome Cohen, Ph.D., and Forest G. Shufflebarger, M.D. Springfield, III.: Charles C. Thomas, 1962, 313 pp. The determined effort of the authors to find the place for carbon dioxide therapy in the practice of medicine is indeed both timely and appropriate. The use of over ten thousand statistics in attempting to evaluate two hundred and fifty variables found in personality and rating tests is an indication of the thoroughness of their work. This is a well controlled investigation of the differences between the effects of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide treatments, from which reasonable conclusions are drawn. Although only patients with colitis were used for this stUdy, the observations of the researchers were by no means limited to the changes in the colon. The authors, being aware of the changing symptomatology and elusiveness of the nervous ailments, limited the scope of their stUdy to the colitis patients while at the same time they measured personality and physical changes in these patients. The intellect of the SUbjects was evaluated by
PSYCHOSOMATICS
MAY-JUNE
Book Reviews OLIGOPHRENIA. MENTAL DEFICIENCY IN CHILDREN. M. S. Pevzner. Preface by J. Tiz· ard. New York: The International Behavioral Sciences Series edited by Joseph Wortis, M.D. Consultants Bureau. 1961. Pp. xiii & 406. $15.00. This book is a good illustration of the differences in psycho-physiological approach between American and the Soviet medicine. The author presents her observations on clinical and experimental studies in mental deficiency covering a number of years of careful research. The Western attitude of measuring the degree of deficiency and of classifying it according to etiology is rejected. The author is primarily preoccupied with disturbances of some particular cerebral functions. Such functions in turn are analyzed in terms of Pavlovian neuro-physiology. Reading this presentation may open new and stimulating vistas for the Western understanding of mental deficiency. The book is filled with meticulous clinical observations; a number of ingenious techniques to test various mental functions may be found here. This material may be of value for retraining and rehabilitation of mental defectives and may assist, according to the claim of the author, in a more precise differential diagnosis. A new classification of mental deficiency is suggested with different groups based on differences in psycho-physiological impairment. In the first group, resulting from a diffuse lesion of the cerebral cortex, the lack of "mobility" or "inertia" of the psychological processes presents as the main clinical ,feature. The second type is linked with a diffuse cortical lesion accompanied by deficiency in cerebral circulation resulting in various degrees of hydrocephalus. The same picture of psychophysiological immobility is observed here and also accompanied, to use Pavlovian terminology, by disturbance of the balance between cerebral excitation and inhibition. The author illustrates her principle with some typical cases where one or the other psychopathological pattern is prevalent. The third form is believed to depend on diffuse pathology of the cortex as well as the sub-cortical areas responsible for cerebral associations. Psycho-motor disorders would be prominent in this type and they would clinically present themselves as disturbance of volition and emotionlll control. The author calls such abnormalities the "disturbed emotional-volitional functions" and believes that it may be difficult to distinguish this type of oligophrenia from some cases of childhood schizophrenia, A number of relevant histories are presented
in detail. Although the methodology and conclusions advanced in this work may stir up conSiderable criticism among American psychiatric scientists, this book will still provide challenging and worthwhile reading. . Victor Szyrynski, M.D., Ph.D.
CEREBRAL APOPLEXY. Philip Schwartz, M.D. Springfield, III.: C. C. Thomas, 1961. This slim, erudite book will send many a reader back to his neuroanatomy text and medi- . cal dictionary. The author, a pathologist, divides apoplexy into three types: embolic, arteriosclerotic and hypertensive. An extensive description of the distinctive pathologic lesions is followed by the development of "suggestions" as to their cause and pathogenesis. Emphasis is placed on neurogenic circulatory changes and vasomotor sensitivity. The concept of vascular tears is discredited. Dr. Schwartz has obViously done voluminous reading and painstaking research. Much historical material is included. The author's style is, at times, a bit heavy and the numerous references and footnotes somewhat distracting, The illustrations are beautifully clear and the main points are well emphasized. This book will appeal primarily to the pathologist and neurologist. The general practitioner may find it difficult reading but well worth the effort! Leonard J. Schiff, M.D.
MIND AND CIVILIZATION: CONTROL OF THE MIND. Edited by S. M. Farber and Roger H. L. Wilson. McGraw-Hili, N. Y., 1961. Pp. 340, $6.50. This book is based upon a Symposium held at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center in January 1961. Twenty-siX eminent men, representing the various disciplines of science, psychology, sociology, history, religion, mass communication and political science were gathered together to pool and focus their knowledge and experience toward a·deeper understanding of the forces acting on the human mind. The Symposium was sponsored by the Schering Foundation and Schering Corporation. Various papers and panel discussions considered the physiological and biochemical aspects of brain activity, the influence of drugs,the roles of society, the impact of technology as well as restriction and freedom of the mind. Discussions include the role of DNA and RNA, the potentialities. of brain washing, the possibilities of computing machines competing with man, and
1962
PSYCHOSOMATICS
the effects of relative freedom or lack of freedom under communism as compared to western ideology. An excellent discussion on neurophysiology by Wilder Penfield is included; other unusual papers deal with the role of experience (D. O. Hebb), human potentialities (Aldous Huxley), psychopharmacology (S. S. Kety, James G. Miller, J. O. Cole). Panel discussions, representing the widest possible range of disciplines, cover many fascinating areas. The final one dealt with a) the rationale for the symposium, b) the desirability of avoiding confusion between the cure of illness by drugs and manipulation of the normal person, c) the "vulgarization" of psychiatric knowledge, and d) Freud's psychoanalytic approach. Professors of sociology, psychiatry and political science participated-'-and did communicate not only with each other but with a most critical and questioning audience. The Schering Corporation is to be congratulated on making this unusual symposium possible. W.D.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSANITY by Bernard Hart. Cambridge. Univ. Press. 1st paperback ed. 1962. 127 pages. $1.25 (1st Ed. 1912). This book, first published in 1912, attempts to present the subject matter in a simple, systematic, manner. The general principles enunciated are those of Freud, Jung, Janet, KrafftEbing and lastly Trotter whose two papers on "Herd Instinct" are cited. A brief history of mental disorder is presented, followed by a concept of mental disorder. The phenomena are explained through the mental mechanisms of dissociation, complexes, conflict, regression, repression, projection and phantasy, with a final summation of the significance of conflict. The author insists that brain and physiology are different from mind and psychology and that a different language or terminology must be used for each. "The psychological laws must contain no physiological terms and the physiological laws must contain no psychological terms." Carefully, with adequate description, and with clinical examples, the mental mechanisms are evolved and discussed. Each mechanism is shown to be important and a relative degree of importance is established. Even though repression is shown to be the most used and most important mechanism, dissociation becomes a key mechanism in the authors dogmatic schema. The follOWing quotes not only illustrates this but helps set the scene for the final statement: "The delusions of the insane resemble many of the beliefs and opinions held by the sane. . . . In
245
other respects, however, they differ to such an extent that it is generally easy to decide to which of the two groups a given symptom must be assigned. The beliefs of the sane, whether true or false, are generally supported by the opinion of a class, and are the result of the operation of herd instinct. The delusions of the insane, on the other hand, are not so supported, but are individual aberrations dependent upon factors working in direct opposition to herd instinct. In the insane, disssociation has been carried to a degree which is incompatible with normal thought on behavior, and mental processes are allowed to pursue their course altogether undisturbed by the contradictions presented by the facts of experience. . . . In phantasy the creations of an idle fancy have become the delusions of insanity. A further degree of dissociation has been attained. . . . The fundamental mechanism which underlies the vast group of insanities consists essentially in a dissociation of the herd instincts. . . . The problem is how to obviate the underlying dissociation ... it would be necessary to deal with the conflict which produced it. The primitive instincts cannot be altered, and the attack must be directed against the traditions and codes which obtain their force from the operation of the herd instinct-the ways in which these traditions and codes act upon the mind of the patient." Joseph Joel Friedman, M.D.
INVESTIGATION OF CARBON DIOXIDE THER· APY. G. K. Yacorzynski, Ph.D., Arthur J. At· kinson, M.D., Jerome Cohen, Ph.D., and Forest G. Shufflebarger, M.D. Springfield, III.: Charles C. Thomas, 1962, 313 pp. The determined effort of the authors to find the place for carbon dioxide therapy in the practice of medicine is indeed both timely and appropriate. The use of over ten thousand statistics in attempting to evaluate two hundred and fifty variables found in personality and rating tests is an indication of the thoroughness of their work. This is a well controlled investigation of the differences between the effects of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide treatments, from which reasonable conclusions are drawn. Although only patients with colitis were used for this stUdy, the observations of the researchers were by no means limited to the changes in the colon. The authors, being aware of the changing symptomatology and elusiveness of the nervous ailments, limited the scope of their stUdy to the colitis patients while at the same time they measured personality and physical changes in these patients. The intellect of the SUbjects was evaluated by