Beyond the Clinical Frontiers : a Psychiatrist Views Crowd Behaviour
- Author:
Edward A.
Strecker, A.M., Sc.D., Litt.D., M.D. Chapman & Hall, Ltd. 9s. 6d.
In some of our City Companies provision has been made by benefactors in the past for dinners to be partaken of either on special occasions or so many times a year. The institution of Memorial Lectures furnishes mental pabulum in similar fashion. The requirements of the testator have to be satisfied and there may or may not be something original in the fare that is forthcoming.
Professor Strecker has at his service a wealth of psychiatric clinical experience, and the task he has set himself in these Thomas William Salmon Memorial Lectures is to bring this into relation with a much wider sphere, that of general human behaviour. He looks for example for similarities in evasion of and retreat from reality in individuals within and outside mental hospitals and he contrasts the reactions of patients with those of “normal” man and the mob. The last four chapters deal mainly with mental hygiene, and perhaps the most interesting of them is that on mental hygiene planning. But no systematic scheme is formulated; in fact the whole book is constructed on a basis of ” random thoughts ” and of speculations tentatively put forward. Such expressions as, ” is it beyond the sphere of possibility ? ; it is some- what doubtful; I should like to take gentle issue; one may be permitted the reservation; a not altogether illogical conclusion “, occur repeatedly.
The suggestions for planning for mental hygiene are mainly of an educative type, with pleas for a more humanistic outlook and for investigations into the technique of child training with possibilities for psychoanalytical procedures in certain cases. (The author throughout approaches the subject of psycho- analysis as if it were a fiery steed that might carry him into danger.) He advocates greater honesty in facing conflicting issues and favour- able environmental provision for those incapable of normal adaptation. He would like a less standardized and less extroverted civilization, and he continues: ” There are not enough vistas which encourage thoughtfulness. First the capacity to think, then a few quiet places in which to think and finally some worthwhile things to think about. This would constitute the prescription of mental hygiene.”
So while the reader may interest himself in musings of a thoughtful nature, though neither very original nor inspiring, the schematist will find little to satisfy him and still less to criticize. H.C.S.
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