Psychiatry in Medical Practice

the concepts and information it presents. Its great weakness lies in the lack of critical appraisal of the methodology of some of the data quoted. Wide-eyed speculation based on single cases are quoted with as much authority as the data of well-controlled experimental studies. Considering the fact that at least 65 per cent of patients coming to the average physician have disease syndromes initiated or seriously complicated by psychological factors, and that the busy specialist or general practitioner has had little time to keep in touch with the latest research in psychiatry, this book will be a welcome addition to be read with profit by most medical specialists. The major purpose of this book, as stated in the preface, is to describe various specialized treatments and procedures of modern psychiatry, "pri-marily for the benefit of those in general practice who are interested in (psychiatric) problems that beset them in their daily work." The book turns out to be a thinned-down standard psychiatric text, based almost entirely on information and opinions at least 15 years old. Although there is refreshing literary simplicity in the book's language and style, its brevity and incompleteness eliminates most of what value the book would have had as a reference text. Some of the chapters are written by four contributors. Of these, Par-tridge's on cerebral surgery is a creditable abbreviated review of a very confused treatment area, and Allen's on hypnosis is a gem-like piece of succinct lay coverage of the field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. What is promised and not given, is adequate treatment of psychological problems that coIm-monly arise in medical practice. For example, there is only a brief paragraph which merely generalizes some aspects of psychological management of acute psychiatric emergencies. There is no mention of postoperative and incapacitating disease states, or consideration of the management of the dying patent. The only discussion of professional control (as opposed to amateur) in the doctor-patient relationship, comes briefly under the heading of "technique of history-taking." What, for instance, should a doctor consider in planning his care of a patient who asks penetrating questions about diagnosis? How do various categories of illness that are described in the book, influence the management say, of an acute infectious illness? How does a doctor cope with strong undesired emotional feelings that arise in himself during the course of patient management? There is little of value to a physician seeking …