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It is to be hoped that this book will be acclaimed as marking the advent of a new and constructive phase in the study of the causes of schizophrenic reactions. Collections of articles on this self-same subject have appeared in the past, but never before has the reader had an opportunity of finding in one volume a series of essays—contributed by geneticists, biochemists, psycho-analysts, and social psychologists, all equally characterized by the recognition that no one discipline can hope to provide the complete solution for the problems presented by the schizophrenic illnesses. The papers are grouped into six sections entitled respectively 'Genetics', 'Biochemistry', 'Physiology', 'Psychology', 'Sociology', and 'Family Dynamics'.
Although this book is edited by a psycho-analyst there are no strictly psycho-analytical articles. The psycho-analytical contributions are essentially studies in applied psycho-analysis and are taken up with the subject of family dynamics. They contain a detailed account of studies which have been made of families of schizophrenic patients and they confirm earlier impressions that the childhood of schizophrenic patients is never comfortable or emotionally stable. Although the authors have gone to some lengths to anticipate criticism they can hardly expect to avoid this.
The reviewer envisages that psycho-analysts will disagree with their formulations on a number of counts. First, they will argue that little attention has been given to psychical reality and to disturbance in the instinctual economy as potent aetiological factors. Second, they may suggest that the emphasis laid on childhood traumata and disturbed interpersonal relations relegates the mechanism of symptom formation to a kind of conditioning. This serious criticism may also be applied to the 'double bind' hypothesis. The process described by the concept of 'double bind' is indeed reminiscent of those conditioning experiments in which animals are given conflicting signals