A Guide to Psychiatric Books. With Some Suggested Reading Lists: By Karl A. Menninger. (New York and London: Grune and Stratton, 1956. Pp. 157. Price $4.75.)

This is the second edition of a book which has proved of great value for practising psychiatrists and research workers. Nowadays, when it has become quite impossible to keep up to date even in a limited field of psychiatry, a guide such as this is indispensable. The basic disciplines, including neurophysiology, neurology, psychology, and sociology, receive full consideration, more than one-third of the book being devoted to them. Psycho-analytic literature is well represented. The author has dropped the starring of the titles of works of seemingly outstanding significance, but he has remained both selective and catholic. He has taken care to include the classics, thus countering the widespread tendency to ignore them. Only books written in English have been included. While in the first edition there was only one basic reading list, the new edition has one for psychiatrists in training, one for medical practitioners, and one for non-medical people who encounter psychiatric problems, such as clergymen and others. The reading lists are well balanced and not too exacting. They will be welcomed with gratitude by all concerned, including the teachers of psychiatry. This Guide adds to the great debt of gratitude which modern psychiatry owes to the Menninger School and to Karl Menninger in particular.