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By Prof. J. H. Schultz. (Stuttgart: Georg Thieme, 1955. Pp. 215. DM. 24.)
Kritik der Psychosomatik (Criticism of Psycho-somatic Medicine). By H. H. Weitbrecht. (Stuttgart: Georg Thieme, 1955. Pp. 114. DM. 12.)
Zur Psychologie und Psychopathologie der Erinnerungen (Psychological and Psychopathological Studies of Remembering). By H.J. Wieck. (Stuttgart: Georg Thieme, 1955. Pp. 118. DM. 9.60.)
Professor Schultz, who is an eclectic of great erudition, attempts to arrive at a synthesis of the various psychological and physiological approaches to the study and treatment of the neuroses. For those not well versed in German psychology, psychiatry, and philosophy, the book will make heavy reading, all the more so as the author introduces a number of new terms, but it will be worth the effort. This is an interesting and stimulating work by a scholar who has devoted a lifetime to medical psychology.
Weitbrecht's penetrating critical appraisal of the present state of psycho-somatic medicine contains little that has not been said before, also by psycho-analysts. Admittedly the literature on psycho-somatic medicine must be very bewildering for the outsider, especially for the German reader who is used to finding in scientific journals only articles carefully sifted by the appropriate academical authorities. There is, in fact, much less dogmatism in psycho-analysis and psycho-somatic medicine than there appears to be to the author of this book. It is somewhat pathetic to read that 'clinical psychopathology' which dismisses the contribution of psycho-analysis is experiencing a new lease of life in criticizing the analytical schools.
Wieck's monograph is an essay on conventional phenomenological lines. The contributions of other schools to this vast subject are not considered, and the bibliography contains German names alone.