Modern Practice in Psychological Medicine, 1949
- Author:
Rees, M.D. London. Butterworth & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., Bell Yard,
Temple Bar. 1949. 50s.
This book, under the editorship of Dr J. R. Rees, C.B.E.?who as readers of this journal know, is the President of the new World Federation for Mental Health and a member of Council of the N.A.M.H.? incorporates the experience of 29 workers in the field of mental health. It covers all aspects of prevention and treatment and lays welcome stress on the frontiers common to sociology, genetics and education. All schools of thought are represented. There are contributions from the right and left wings of the field. Nature and nurture is dealt with. Children, adolescents and adults are comprehensively described.
The social work angle is stressed and this is a welcome innovation. The book is essentially practical and this balanced outlook is just the kind of thing that a senior medical student or general practitioner would welcome.
Apart from the article on Organic Reaction Types, the section on Psychosomatic Medicine is the longest. This is as it should be, for the family doctor, it is hoped, will be the main reader of the text-book.
Symposia are always lacking in uniformity and this is inevitable, especially with a complex subject like psychological medicine. One still hopes that some day an Osier in mental health will be found who will write a text-book covering the same ground by himself. Nevertheless, this book will remain for a long time to come the best encyclopaedia on the subject for the non-specialist. A.T.
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