Theory and Practice of Psychiatry: By William S. Sadler. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby, 1936. 1,156 pp.

This book purports in its preface to be a practical text book for the psychiatrist, the general practitioner, and 'other trained men and women who may be desirous of doing something, directly or indirectly, in the fields of preventive and curative psychiatry', for instance, 'sociologists, psychologists, religious teachers, clergymen, priests, and rabbis, together with trained nurses' and finally 'professional readers of all classes'. Its mission is to fill a gap left by the 'dearth of practical literature dealing with the non-psychotic groups of nervous disorders' to 'divest mental hygiene of many of its psychiatric mysteries and deliver it from the "confusion of tongues"—the sectarian clamorings—that have served to obscure the "common-sense" methods of study and practice which the rank and file of the profession are well qualified to undertake if they are once delivered from the "mystifications" of the multifarious teachings of the conflicting specialized schools of psychiatry'.1 Thus bravely does the author set forth, and we are pleased to find that he represents by no means a solitary, doctrinaire point of view, but is spokesman for a most respectable group of fellow practitioners. 'This book in general follows the psychiatric concepts of what might be called "The American School of Psychiatry".' 'It is founded on the common-sense propositions put forth at about the beginning of the century by Adolf Meyer, and in the intervening years has gathered to itself the majority of the broader-minded practitioners of the specialized schools of medical psychology.' The principles which guide this new approach and which are based on the corner-stone of common sense are outlined in an historical introduction where the different Schools of Psychiatry are serially discussed, Psychoanalysis—the Freudian School of Psychology being the first, and The American School of Psychiatry being the eighth and last, while the intervening sections are allotted to Adler, Jung, Watson, M