View
215
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
244 PSYCHOSOMATICS
Book Reviews
MAY-JUNE
OLIGOPHRENIA. MENTAL DEFICIENCY INCHILDREN. M. S. Pevzner. Preface by J. Tiz·ard. New York: The International BehavioralSciences Series edited by Joseph Wortis, M.D.Consultants Bureau. 1961. Pp. xiii & 406. $15.00.This book is a good illustration of the differ-
ences in psycho-physiological approach betweenAmerican and the Soviet medicine. The authorpresents her observations on clinical and experimental studies in mental deficiency covering anumber of years of careful research. The Western attitude of measuring the degree of deficiency and of classifying it according to etiologyis rejected. The author is primarily preoccupiedwith disturbances of some particular cerebralfunctions. Such functions in turn are analyzedin terms of Pavlovian neuro-physiology.
Reading this presentation may open new andstimulating vistas for the Western understanding of mental deficiency. The book is filled withmeticulous clinical observations; a number ofingenious techniques to test various mental functions may be found here. This material may beof value for retraining and rehabilitation of mental defectives and may assist, according to theclaim of the author, in a more precise differentialdiagnosis. A new classification of mental deficiency is suggested with different groups basedon differences in psycho-physiological impairment.
In the first group, resulting from a diffuse lesion of the cerebral cortex, the lack of "mobility" or "inertia" of the psychological processespresents as the main clinical ,feature. The second type is linked with a diffuse cortical lesionaccompanied by deficiency in cerebral circulationresulting in various degrees of hydrocephalus.The same picture of psychophysiological immobility is observed here and also accompanied, touse Pavlovian terminology, by disturbance of thebalance between cerebral excitation and inhibition. The author illustrates her principle withsome typical cases where one or the other psychopathological pattern is prevalent. The thirdform is believed to depend on diffuse pathologyof the cortex as well as the sub-cortical areas responsible for cerebral associations. Psycho-motordisorders would be prominent in this type andthey would clinically present themselves as disturbance of volition and emotionlll control. Theauthor calls such abnormalities the "disturbedemotional-volitional functions" and believes thatit may be difficult to distinguish this type ofoligophrenia from some cases of childhood schizophrenia,
A number of relevant histories are presented
in detail. Although the methodology and conclusions advanced in this work may stir up conSiderable criticism among American psychiatricscientists, this book will still provide challeng-ing and worthwhile reading. .
Victor Szyrynski, M.D., Ph.D.
CEREBRAL APOPLEXY. Philip Schwartz, M.D.Springfield, III.: C. C. Thomas, 1961.
This slim, erudite book will send many areader back to his neuroanatomy text and medi- .cal dictionary. The author, a pathologist, divides apoplexy into three types: embolic, arteriosclerotic and hypertensive. An extensivedescription of the distinctive pathologic lesionsis followed by the development of "suggestions"as to their cause and pathogenesis. Emphasisis placed on neurogenic circulatory changes andvasomotor sensitivity. The concept of vasculartears is discredited. Dr. Schwartz has obViouslydone voluminous reading and painstaking research. Much historical material is included.The author's style is, at times, a bit heavy andthe numerous references and footnotes somewhat distracting, The illustrations are beautifully clear and the main points are well emphasized. This book will appeal primarily to thepathologist and neurologist. The general practitioner may find it difficult reading but wellworth the effort!
Leonard J. Schiff, M.D.
MIND AND CIVILIZATION: CONTROL OF THEMIND. Edited by S. M. Farber and Roger H. L.Wilson. McGraw-Hili, N. Y., 1961. Pp. 340,$6.50.
This book is based upon a Symposium held atthe University of California, San Francisco Medical Center in January 1961. Twenty-siX eminent men, representing the various disciplines ofscience, psychology, sociology, history, religion,mass communication and political science weregathered together to pool and focus their knowledge and experience toward a·deeper understanding of the forces acting on the human mind. TheSymposium was sponsored by the Schering Foundation and Schering Corporation.
Various papers and panel discussions considered the physiological and biochemical aspectsof brain activity, the influence of drugs,the rolesof society, the impact of technology as well asrestriction and freedom of the mind. Discussionsinclude the role of DNA and RNA, the potentialities.of brain washing, the possibilities ofcomputing machines competing with man, and
244 PSYCHOSOMATICS
Book Reviews
MAY-JUNE
OLIGOPHRENIA. MENTAL DEFICIENCY INCHILDREN. M. S. Pevzner. Preface by J. Tiz·ard. New York: The International BehavioralSciences Series edited by Joseph Wortis, M.D.Consultants Bureau. 1961. Pp. xiii & 406. $15.00.This book is a good illustration of the differ-
ences in psycho-physiological approach betweenAmerican and the Soviet medicine. The authorpresents her observations on clinical and experimental studies in mental deficiency covering anumber of years of careful research. The Western attitude of measuring the degree of deficiency and of classifying it according to etiologyis rejected. The author is primarily preoccupiedwith disturbances of some particular cerebralfunctions. Such functions in turn are analyzedin terms of Pavlovian neuro-physiology.
Reading this presentation may open new andstimulating vistas for the Western understanding of mental deficiency. The book is filled withmeticulous clinical observations; a number ofingenious techniques to test various mental functions may be found here. This material may beof value for retraining and rehabilitation of mental defectives and may assist, according to theclaim of the author, in a more precise differentialdiagnosis. A new classification of mental deficiency is suggested with different groups basedon differences in psycho-physiological impairment.
In the first group, resulting from a diffuse lesion of the cerebral cortex, the lack of "mobility" or "inertia" of the psychological processespresents as the main clinical ,feature. The second type is linked with a diffuse cortical lesionaccompanied by deficiency in cerebral circulationresulting in various degrees of hydrocephalus.The same picture of psychophysiological immobility is observed here and also accompanied, touse Pavlovian terminology, by disturbance of thebalance between cerebral excitation and inhibition. The author illustrates her principle withsome typical cases where one or the other psychopathological pattern is prevalent. The thirdform is believed to depend on diffuse pathologyof the cortex as well as the sub-cortical areas responsible for cerebral associations. Psycho-motordisorders would be prominent in this type andthey would clinically present themselves as disturbance of volition and emotionlll control. Theauthor calls such abnormalities the "disturbedemotional-volitional functions" and believes thatit may be difficult to distinguish this type ofoligophrenia from some cases of childhood schizophrenia,
A number of relevant histories are presented
in detail. Although the methodology and conclusions advanced in this work may stir up conSiderable criticism among American psychiatricscientists, this book will still provide challeng-ing and worthwhile reading. .
Victor Szyrynski, M.D., Ph.D.
CEREBRAL APOPLEXY. Philip Schwartz, M.D.Springfield, III.: C. C. Thomas, 1961.
This slim, erudite book will send many areader back to his neuroanatomy text and medi- .cal dictionary. The author, a pathologist, divides apoplexy into three types: embolic, arteriosclerotic and hypertensive. An extensivedescription of the distinctive pathologic lesionsis followed by the development of "suggestions"as to their cause and pathogenesis. Emphasisis placed on neurogenic circulatory changes andvasomotor sensitivity. The concept of vasculartears is discredited. Dr. Schwartz has obViouslydone voluminous reading and painstaking research. Much historical material is included.The author's style is, at times, a bit heavy andthe numerous references and footnotes somewhat distracting, The illustrations are beautifully clear and the main points are well emphasized. This book will appeal primarily to thepathologist and neurologist. The general practitioner may find it difficult reading but wellworth the effort!
Leonard J. Schiff, M.D.
MIND AND CIVILIZATION: CONTROL OF THEMIND. Edited by S. M. Farber and Roger H. L.Wilson. McGraw-Hili, N. Y., 1961. Pp. 340,$6.50.
This book is based upon a Symposium held atthe University of California, San Francisco Medical Center in January 1961. Twenty-siX eminent men, representing the various disciplines ofscience, psychology, sociology, history, religion,mass communication and political science weregathered together to pool and focus their knowledge and experience toward a·deeper understanding of the forces acting on the human mind. TheSymposium was sponsored by the Schering Foundation and Schering Corporation.
Various papers and panel discussions considered the physiological and biochemical aspectsof brain activity, the influence of drugs,the rolesof society, the impact of technology as well asrestriction and freedom of the mind. Discussionsinclude the role of DNA and RNA, the potentialities.of brain washing, the possibilities ofcomputing machines competing with man, and
1962 PSYCHOSOMATICS 245
the effects of relative freedom or lack of freedom under communism as compared to westernideology.
An excellent discussion on neurophysiology byWilder Penfield is included; other unusual papersdeal with the role of experience (D. O. Hebb),human potentialities (Aldous Huxley), psychopharmacology (S. S. Kety, James G. Miller, J. O.Cole).
Panel discussions, representing the widest possible range of disciplines, cover many fascinatingareas. The final one dealt with a) the rationalefor the symposium, b) the desirability of avoiding confusion between the cure of illness bydrugs and manipulation of the normal person,c) the "vulgarization" of psychiatric knowledge,and d) Freud's psychoanalytic approach. Professors of sociology, psychiatry and political science participated-'-and did communicate not onlywith each other but with a most critical andquestioning audience.
The Schering Corporation is to be congratulated on making this unusual symposium possible.
W.D.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSANITY by BernardHart. Cambridge. Univ. Press. 1st paperbacked. 1962. 127 pages. $1.25 (1st Ed. 1912).
This book, first published in 1912, attemptsto present the subject matter in a simple, systematic, manner. The general principles enunciated are those of Freud, Jung, Janet, KrafftEbing and lastly Trotter whose two papers on"Herd Instinct" are cited.
A brief history of mental disorder is presented,followed by a concept of mental disorder. Thephenomena are explained through the mentalmechanisms of dissociation, complexes, conflict,regression, repression, projection and phantasy,with a final summation of the significance of conflict. The author insists that brain and physiology are different from mind and psychology andthat a different language or terminology mustbe used for each. "The psychological laws mustcontain no physiological terms and the physiological laws must contain no psychologicalterms."
Carefully, with adequate description, and withclinical examples, the mental mechanisms areevolved and discussed. Each mechanism is shownto be important and a relative degree of importance is established. Even though repression isshown to be the most used and most importantmechanism, dissociation becomes a key mechanism in the authors dogmatic schema. The follOWing quotes not only illustrates this but helpsset the scene for the final statement:
"The delusions of the insane resemble many ofthe beliefs and opinions held by the sane. . . . In
other respects, however, they differ to such anextent that it is generally easy to decide towhich of the two groups a given symptom mustbe assigned. The beliefs of the sane, whethertrue or false, are generally supported by theopinion of a class, and are the result of the operation of herd instinct. The delusions of theinsane, on the other hand, are not so supported,but are individual aberrations dependent uponfactors working in direct opposition to herd instinct. In the insane, disssociation has been carried to a degree which is incompatible with normal thought on behavior, and mental processesare allowed to pursue their course altogether undisturbed by the contradictions presented by thefacts of experience. . . . In phantasy the creations of an idle fancy have become the delusionsof insanity. A further degree of dissociation hasbeen attained. . . . The fundamental mechanismwhich underlies the vast group of insanities consists essentially in a dissociation of the herd instincts. . . . The problem is how to obviate theunderlying dissociation ... it would be necessaryto deal with the conflict which produced it. Theprimitive instincts cannot be altered, and the attack must be directed against the traditions andcodes which obtain their force from the operation of the herd instinct-the ways in which thesetraditions and codes act upon the mind of thepatient."
Joseph Joel Friedman, M.D.
INVESTIGATION OF CARBON DIOXIDE THER·APY. G. K. Yacorzynski, Ph.D., Arthur J. At·kinson, M.D., Jerome Cohen, Ph.D., and ForestG. Shufflebarger, M.D. Springfield, III.: CharlesC. Thomas, 1962, 313 pp.
The determined effort of the authors to findthe place for carbon dioxide therapy in the practice of medicine is indeed both timely and appropriate. The use of over ten thousand statisticsin attempting to evaluate two hundred and fiftyvariables found in personality and rating testsis an indication of the thoroughness of theirwork.
This is a well controlled investigation of thedifferences between the effects of nitrous oxideand carbon dioxide treatments, from which reasonable conclusions are drawn. Although onlypatients with colitis were used for this stUdy,the observations of the researchers were by nomeans limited to the changes in the colon. Theauthors, being aware of the changing symptomatology and elusiveness of the nervous ailments,limited the scope of their stUdy to the colitis patients while at the same time they measuredpersonality and physical changes in these patients.
The intellect of the SUbjects was evaluated by
1962 PSYCHOSOMATICS 245
the effects of relative freedom or lack of freedom under communism as compared to westernideology.
An excellent discussion on neurophysiology byWilder Penfield is included; other unusual papersdeal with the role of experience (D. O. Hebb),human potentialities (Aldous Huxley), psychopharmacology (S. S. Kety, James G. Miller, J. O.Cole).
Panel discussions, representing the widest possible range of disciplines, cover many fascinatingareas. The final one dealt with a) the rationalefor the symposium, b) the desirability of avoiding confusion between the cure of illness bydrugs and manipulation of the normal person,c) the "vulgarization" of psychiatric knowledge,and d) Freud's psychoanalytic approach. Professors of sociology, psychiatry and political science participated-'-and did communicate not onlywith each other but with a most critical andquestioning audience.
The Schering Corporation is to be congratulated on making this unusual symposium possible.
W.D.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INSANITY by BernardHart. Cambridge. Univ. Press. 1st paperbacked. 1962. 127 pages. $1.25 (1st Ed. 1912).
This book, first published in 1912, attemptsto present the subject matter in a simple, systematic, manner. The general principles enunciated are those of Freud, Jung, Janet, KrafftEbing and lastly Trotter whose two papers on"Herd Instinct" are cited.
A brief history of mental disorder is presented,followed by a concept of mental disorder. Thephenomena are explained through the mentalmechanisms of dissociation, complexes, conflict,regression, repression, projection and phantasy,with a final summation of the significance of conflict. The author insists that brain and physiology are different from mind and psychology andthat a different language or terminology mustbe used for each. "The psychological laws mustcontain no physiological terms and the physiological laws must contain no psychologicalterms."
Carefully, with adequate description, and withclinical examples, the mental mechanisms areevolved and discussed. Each mechanism is shownto be important and a relative degree of importance is established. Even though repression isshown to be the most used and most importantmechanism, dissociation becomes a key mechanism in the authors dogmatic schema. The follOWing quotes not only illustrates this but helpsset the scene for the final statement:
"The delusions of the insane resemble many ofthe beliefs and opinions held by the sane. . . . In
other respects, however, they differ to such anextent that it is generally easy to decide towhich of the two groups a given symptom mustbe assigned. The beliefs of the sane, whethertrue or false, are generally supported by theopinion of a class, and are the result of the operation of herd instinct. The delusions of theinsane, on the other hand, are not so supported,but are individual aberrations dependent uponfactors working in direct opposition to herd instinct. In the insane, disssociation has been carried to a degree which is incompatible with normal thought on behavior, and mental processesare allowed to pursue their course altogether undisturbed by the contradictions presented by thefacts of experience. . . . In phantasy the creations of an idle fancy have become the delusionsof insanity. A further degree of dissociation hasbeen attained. . . . The fundamental mechanismwhich underlies the vast group of insanities consists essentially in a dissociation of the herd instincts. . . . The problem is how to obviate theunderlying dissociation ... it would be necessaryto deal with the conflict which produced it. Theprimitive instincts cannot be altered, and the attack must be directed against the traditions andcodes which obtain their force from the operation of the herd instinct-the ways in which thesetraditions and codes act upon the mind of thepatient."
Joseph Joel Friedman, M.D.
INVESTIGATION OF CARBON DIOXIDE THER·APY. G. K. Yacorzynski, Ph.D., Arthur J. At·kinson, M.D., Jerome Cohen, Ph.D., and ForestG. Shufflebarger, M.D. Springfield, III.: CharlesC. Thomas, 1962, 313 pp.
The determined effort of the authors to findthe place for carbon dioxide therapy in the practice of medicine is indeed both timely and appropriate. The use of over ten thousand statisticsin attempting to evaluate two hundred and fiftyvariables found in personality and rating testsis an indication of the thoroughness of theirwork.
This is a well controlled investigation of thedifferences between the effects of nitrous oxideand carbon dioxide treatments, from which reasonable conclusions are drawn. Although onlypatients with colitis were used for this stUdy,the observations of the researchers were by nomeans limited to the changes in the colon. Theauthors, being aware of the changing symptomatology and elusiveness of the nervous ailments,limited the scope of their stUdy to the colitis patients while at the same time they measuredpersonality and physical changes in these patients.
The intellect of the SUbjects was evaluated by