An Introduction to Psychological Medicine
- Type:
Book Reviews
- Author:
Gordon, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P.
Ed., N. G. Harris, M.D., B.S., D.P.M., and J- R. Rees, M.A., M.D., D.P.H. Humphrey Hilford, Oxford Medical Publications. 10/6.
It is now generally recognised that medical students should receive a fuller training in psychological medicine than is usually available, and that lectures on the subject should have a somewhat broader standpoint, dealing not only With established psychoses but also providing s?me instruction in normal psychology, the Psychoneuroses, and the early and less definite s ages of the more serious forms of mental disorder. The view of the authors of this book is at this instruction should not be entirely self??ntained, but that psychology should be taught ^ connection with the physiology of the nerous system and psychopathology in connection ith pathology; then in his final year the student ould receive five lectures on the psychoeuroses, eight on the psychoses, and two on mental defidency.
here can be no doubt that this general plan Presentation of the whole subject is sound . valuable in principle. It would certainly DrVe J-^e student a much more intelligent and illn ^ a*^ude towards all forms of mental -ess than is usually produced by the courses instruction commonly provided at present. w 1 1S, ^ook covers the ground indicated in a and > *s Perfectly adequate for the student, It ^akes no claim to do more than that.
relaf^01^ therefore be unfair to criticise doprnV ? m*nor instances of omissions or undue is vvriHtlSm 0n debatable questions. The book a co11 ? ?n Sa^e and conservative lines; beyond stimn? ackn?wledgment of his ” influence in Freud^111^ study psychopathology,” expii -f1S han% mentioned. (One of the few Cernin! references to his doctrines?that conaccurafe/he ” suPer-ego ” ? is not quite the n m Psychology and the organisation of hap~ity receive ample description, perMcD0ren.m?re ^an *s necessary, largely on neurn- u ^nes- The account of the psychonecessifS Sf be particularly useful, and the er^phasf d r *nd*v*dualising of cases is rightly The authors have felt that details of the more technical forms of psychotherapy are a matter for post-graduate study. This is quite true, but it is even more true of such a procedure as the malarial treatment of general paralysis, which receives more space than is devoted to an outline of the various forms of mental analysis. A rather fuller account of these methods would not have been out of place.
Of all branches of medical work psychiatry is perhaps the one which least readily lends itself to condensation and simplification for teaching purposes. But the authors have on the whole done a new and difficult piece of work well, and we do not know of any other book of moderate size which covers the same ground so satisfactorily.
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