The Doctor and the Difficult Adult
MENTAL HEALTH 49 Book Reviews
- Author:
William
Moodie, M.D. Cassell & Co. 15s.
Dr Moodie modestly suggests in his preface that his book ” though primarily for medical readers, ? . . may be useful to (other) professional people whose work brings them into contact with problems of human thought and conductThe reviewer feels that it is one of the most practical and understandable books he has seen on the subject of psychotherapy. Not least of its values are the illustrative cases appended to each chapter.
But the book’s main virtue is its concrete guidance to the non-specialist. In these days when the psychiatric profession cannot, owing to its limited size, begin to cope with the vast numbers of emotional problems that beset people in all walks of life, and when prevention or early treatment on a modest scale is so important, Dr Moodie’s kind of exposition is essential. He never forgets Hippocrates’ dictum, do the least harm, and between the amoral tenets of some therapists and the blindnesses of some moralists, he steers a wise and sane course of balanced wisdom and sage judgment. He is no more sparing in his criticism of ultra-” modern ” methods of child rearing (Chapter X), for instance, than of the old school parent. His observations on sex education (Chapter X) for children are cool and penetrating: in a convincing way he points out that the child is no more interested in this subject than in the intricacies of catechism. (One is reminded of Dr Clendening’s observation, ” The gutter is an excellent school “.) These are but examples of his clinical judgment and able presentation. And in all cases he is explicit and unequivocal in his own advice.
His descriptions of the various neurotic syndromes (Chapter IV) are outstanding for their palpable relevance, and he makes important distinctions that, in many books, are lost in muddles of words, e.g.: ” Although the anxiety neurotic appears to be sensitive to things that happen around him, his feelings are really dull, and it is only his concentration … that is greater than normal and he goes on to amplify this point, and others like it that are so frequently misunderstood in popular conception, in understandable language.
But it is Dr Moodie’s discussion of treatment and psychotherapy, especially in Chapters VII and IX, that the reviewer feels to be the outstanding contribution of the book. His important delineation (page 19) of the “unemotional attitude of understanding without sympathy ” ; the importance of always thinking of and treating the patient not as a simple unit but as a member of various social groups (page 199) ; his comments on the giving of advice (page 201)?indeed all his comments on the structuring of the doctor-patient relationship and the process of therapy, are models of sound thought manifestly based on wide clinical experience, and of clear exposition?clear despite at times a somewhat clumsy style of English.
Finally, the reviewer was impressed by the general method of psychotherapy which Dr Moodie describes. Whether he is familiar with the work of Dr Carl Rogers which is achieving considerable standing in America under the name of ” nondirective therapy “, Dr Moodie does not say; but it is clear that his method is very similar to this intrinsically and clinically sound approach. And in the course of his discussion he incidentally clarifies the distinction between the non-directive and the analytical approaches?a distinction which is often denied or misunderstood and which is important because the non-directive method is amenable to general use, whilst psychoanalysis is safe only in the hands of the few. J.F.S.
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