Present-day Psychology

PRESENT-DAY PSYCHOLOGY. A. A. Roback, Editor, with the collaboration of forty experts in the variouis fields. New York, Philosophical Library. 1955. xiv, 995 pp. $12.00. In this volume an attempt is made to survey the entire field of contemporary psychology, incltudinig not only the traditional topics of academlic psychological interest, such as perception, cognition, attention, emotionl, etc., but also ranging as far afield as general neurology, psychodrama. speech, hypnotherapy, psychoanalysis, parapsychology, military psychology, and the psychology of literature, art, and religion. In all, forty different subjects are covered, and the book succeeds in pointing out the intensity and diversity of psychological investigation. Some of the topics have rarely been covered in such a survey; and there is at least one oIn "Contemporary Histories of Psychology" which has not appeared in any other collection. This reviewer was very mutich taken with Dr. Roback's brief preface and introduction in which he alludes to the difficulties of an editor and touches oln his disappointments with unusual honesty. He mentionis that "an interestinig booklet could be written oIn the individual differences of contributors." It probably should be written, since in this age of anthologies, surveys, and symposia it would open for debate not only the relative merit of such pub)lications, but would also bring into focus such problemls as the selection of contributors, the range of individual articles, and the role of the editor. There is little uniformity in this volume. Some of the collaborators attempt to cover the entire field in an historical fashion, others emphasize primarily recent contributions. Some of the papers are critical reviews, while others highlight the personal orientation of the writer. Personal bias is difficult to control and it might have been more profitable for the reader if the most controversial topics had been discussed by representatives of different schools of thought. This, of course, would have meant more articles ancI probably a second volume. And it does seem almost impossible to do justice to the scope of Dr. Roback's approach in one volume. It might perhaps have succeeded if his "ideal"-an emphasis on the more recent research had been heeded by his collaborators. WVith a few exceptions, the chapters are much too brief; however, they have good bibliographies. If one sees this book as an aerial survey of the field, at tinmes distorted by a differing force of individual surveyors, cloud formation above the subject covered, and angle of approach toward the topic, one can profitably explore where one wants to go for further and more detailed study. This book points up the fact that the pedestrian Ino longer has a chance to explore the ever-growing world of psychology unaided. He now needs lodestars to various points of interest from which he can correlate old and new knowledge. JAY KATZ