Book Notices

A HANDBOOK OF HOSPITAL PSYCHIATRY. A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THERAPY, by Louis Linn. New York: International Universities Press, 1955, xxii + 560 pp., $10.00

A highly comprehensive account of every aspect of psychiatric therapy in hospital practice, oriented about the author's decisively psychoanalytic convictions. Although this book was designed to meet the needs of the state hospital physician, who so often "has only recently entered the field of psychiatry and is as yet unprepared for the burdens he is to carry, " it "soon became apparent that many others could profit from it." Every form of therapy employed in psychiatry is described, together with comments on psychodynamic implications. Similarly, major sections are devoted to "The Treatment Team, " "The Patients, " "The Hospital" (including the staff, education, research, etc.), and "The Community" (including handling of relatives, outpatient care, civil emergencies, etc.) Appendices give outlines for examination and evaluation, classification, reading materials for a group bibliography program, etc.

A STUDY OF ABORTION IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES. A TYPOLOGICAL, DISTRIBUTIONAL AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF THE PREVENTION OF BIRTH IN 400 PREINDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES, by George Devereux. New York: The Julian Press, 1955, x + 394 pp., $6.50.

This is not merely an investigation of a specific problem but, by the author's claim, an attempt to demonstrate two major theses: (1) the methodological thesis that studies of human behavior in both depth and breadth yield universally valid, identical conclusions; (2) the substantive thesis that a list of all known types of cultural behavior drawn up by anthropologists would overlap with a complete list of impulses, wishes, fantasies, etc., obtained by psychoanalysts through clinical means. Such convergence would demonstrate more accurately than has been done thus far, "the psychic unity of mankind and the validity of psychoanalytic interpretations of culture." Devereux proceeds to exa