Private Worlds
- Author:
Phyllis Bottome. The
Bodley Head. 7/6.
This is a novel which should help consider- ably in inducing in the general reader a more sympathetic and understanding attitude to those who are suffering from mental disorder and is all the more valuable in that it is quite devoid of anything that could be detected as ” propa- ganda.”
Its setting is a large mental hospital and its principal characters are the group of men and women constituting the medical staff. Its theme is the working out of the problems created by the impinging of their several ” pri- vate worlds ” upon each other and its dramatic interest is such as to have led to its conversion into a film.
To mental welfare workers we would com- mend the book by reason of its skilful portrayal of the general atmosphere of a mental hospital. The atmosphere pictured for us may be an idealised one not yet attained by any but a minority of actually existing institutions. But it is one which modern medical superintendents and administrators in the midst of almost in- superable difficulties are everywhere striving to create, and we welcome a book which has a part to play in that great task.
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