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In her preface the author states that this is not intended to be a text-book of child psychiatry, but to portray general principles helpful in routine clinical examination and diagnosis. Designed primarily for the medical practitioner, it is meant also for others engaged in social medicine. It will be found, however, that in fact the book is remarkably comprehensive and covers in a very adequate way all the clinical conditions commonly met with in psychiatric practice with schoolchildren, as well as many rarer ones. From the point of view of clinical description the book deserves high praise, and the way in which illustrative cases have been followed up is most commendable and excites admiration and envy.
For the most part, the author's approach follows ordinary child guidance lines, though there is little to suggest that she makes much use of a psychiatric social worker in taking histories. The striking departure from customary usage is in her recommendation that the child should be seen first, before any history has been obtained, apart from the referral note. It is hard to believe that any advantage thus gained in initial rapport with the child is not heavily outweighed by the obvious disadvantage of not knowing what one is seeing the child about.
As this is not a psychiatric text-book, there is naturally little emphasis on ætiology; but it is surprising to find so little reference to the effect of early separation from the mother, apart from a brief warning of the danger of recommending removal of a young child from home.
There is, then, much to be said in favour of this book. It has, however, deficiencies which cannot but appear grave to psycho-analysts. The clinical pictures given are clear, but the children are seen exclusively from outside, that is, from the adult point of view, and there is no sign of any understanding of the child's deeper motivations. Indeed, this book betrays little evidence that Freud ever existed, and one is a little surprised to