Schizophrenia. A Review of the Syndrome: Ed. by Leopold Bellak with the collaboration of Paul K. Benedict. (New York: Logos Press, 1958. Pp. 1010. $14.75.)

This volume contains 4,000 references to books and papers, and represents a detailed survey of all aspects of the schizophrenic syndrome from 1947 to 1957. It is a very much improved follow-up of Dr Bellak's previous survey of Dementia Praecox, which dealt with the literature of schizophrenia up to 1947.

The book is divided into eighteen chapters, with an introductory chapter by Dr Bellac himself, where he develops his own multiple-factor, psychosomatic theory of schizophrenia. There are chapters which predominantly deal with organic issues, such as those on aetiology, pathogenesis and pathology, on physiological studies, on physical treatments such as insulin shock and electro-convulsive treatment, on drugs and other miscellaneous somatic treatments. There are also chapters on prognosis, on diagnosis and symptomatology.

One of the longest chapters, of 138 pages with a bibliography of 542 items, is called 'Childhood Schizophrenia and Allied Conditions'. This chapter is so complete that it may almost be regarded as a book on childhood schizophrenia by itself. The authors' statement that they have found a tenfold increase in the number of contributions to childhood schizophrenia since the last decade is interesting. Although it contains such a large amount of material, this chapter is clearly written and deserves careful study.

Of equal interest to the psycho-analytic reader is the chapter on psycho-analytic aspects of schizophrenia. This chapter of 55 pages is divided into a discussion of the psycho-analytic theory and the psycho-analytic treatment of schizophrenia. In the first part stress is laid both on the work of authors investigating the importance of the early infantile development in schizophrenia, such as Mahler, Ekstein, Spitz, Kris and Klein, and on the work of analyst investigating the role of the ego in schizophrenia, such as Federn, Hartmann, Eisler, Róheim and others. Care is taken to give a comprehensive picture of the work done on schizophrenia