Willis's Oxford casebook: 1650–52

Willis's Oxford casebook: 1650–52

Journalof Psychosomatic Research, Vol. 27, No. I. pp. 89-91. @X2-3999/83/01008943$03.00/O 1983. Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. ...

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Journalof

Psychosomatic

Research,

Vol. 27, No. I. pp. 89-91.

@X2-3999/83/01008943$03.00/O

1983.

Pergamon Press Ltd.

Printed in Great Britain.

BOOK REVIEWS Handbook of Affective pp. 457. Price f25.

Disorders.

Edited

by E. S. PAYKEL. Churchill

Livingstone,

Edinburgh,

1982.

A BOOK of this kind has been needed for several years. Research into the affective disorders has been progressing in so many different directions that few clinicians are able to keep abreast of developments as they are reported in the various scientific journals. In this volume, Professor Paykel has provided a comprehensive review which will be of considerable value to psychiatry and its allied disciplines. The authors are described as ‘an international team of experts’ and this claim is fully justified because many have made outstanding contributions to research on various aspects of the affective illnesses. There are five sections, concerned with descriptive aspects, aetiology, physical treatment, the psychotherapies and special issues such as childbirth, bereavement and old age. The comprehensive nature of the book is apparent from the chapters on aetiology which cover epidemiology, genetics, life events, psychodynamic theories, biochemical factors, animal models and personality. The chapters on treatment are similarly wide-ranging. Most of the information contained in this book is available elsewhere but nowhere is it presented so conveniently and succinctly. This is an excellent volume which can be recommended without reservations to psychiatrists; it is a must for psychiatric libraries. GEOFFREY LLOYD Consultant Psychiatrist, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Willis’s Oxford Casebook: 199. Price f12.00.

1650-52. KENNETH DEWHURST. Sandford

Publications,

Oxford,

1981. pp. xi,

AFTER two years’ service with the Royalist Forces, Thomas Willis proceeded to the study of medicine. In Kenneth Dewhurst’s words he ‘was fortunate in his medical training. It was brief. It could not have been more than six months and was probably less.’ He qualified at the age of 25 and began the long haul to the top, first as an itinerant practitioner visiting the local towns on market days, and then slowly establishing himself as a physician in Oxford, and later in London, all the time carrying out his researches into anatomy and experimental medicine. Luckily a volume of his case books has been preserved, and is now in the library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. Kenneth Dewhurst has translated the fifty case histories from their original Latin, annotated them and tracked down the individual patients, thereby producing an absorbing account of Willis’s practice during the early part of his career. Seven of the fifty case histories concern psychiatric patients and although these may be of special interest to readers of this journal, there is also much to be learned of the way the 17th century doctor was involved in illness experience. What a relief it is to have a straightforward study of medical history such as this is, free from the windy theorising of social historians. The book is limited to 750 copies-it will soon have a scarcity value. DENIS LEIGH

Sense and Nonsense in Psychotherapy: Oxford, 1981. pp. 244. Pricef7.50

the Challenge of Hypnosis. LEON CHERTOK. Pergamon (flexicover), f15.00 (hard cover).

Press Ltd.,

FIRST impressions are that in spite of the title there is more sense than nonsense in this book. Many readers however would not subscribe to the view that hypnosis must be accepted as a challenge. This idea inevitably invokes the fantasy of the all powerful authoritarian figure which every modern-day therapist, using this still much misunderstood technique, will seek to avoid. Regretfully, and perhaps because of his own psychoanalytical training the author exercises a little too much discretion in expressing his convictions of the value of hypnosis as a positive approach in psychotherapy. Perhaps the first two chapters on hypnotic analgesia and blistering could be incorporated with the two parts of the appendix which deal with the former as well as with contemporary research. Additionally, some reference to recent theories of the role of the endorphins would not have gone amiss. In this way, this comprehensive survey, together with the interesting case histories would flow more easily and could provide irrefutable proof of the influence of the mind on physiological processes. 89