The Treatment of Moral and Emotional Difficulties

By Cyril H. Valentine. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1938. 148 pp.

THE ACHIEVEMENT OF PERSONALITY. By Grace Stuart. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1938. 192 pp.

The clinical psychologist must be a Christian with a religion which is love, not power; which mediates reality, and does not fabricate fantasy. This is the essence of Valentine's book for social workers, ministers, and doctors. There are two introductions, one by the Reverend H. Anson and the other by Dr. J. R. Rees, which emphasize the need for the coöperation of physician and spiritual adviser, and especially for 'simpler and more synthetic methods of treatment, at any rate for the milder neurotic conditions'. Many patients do not need the radical procedures of psychoanalysis or hospitalization: they fall in the category of 'minor surgical cases', and for these this book proposes to be an effective guide.

Valentine has carried out these two points of the introduction only fairly well. He is a discriminating and eclectic writer with common sense and many practical hints which could only come from hard experience in psychotherapy. The style is clear and readable, but the material presented presupposes an elementary knowledge of dynamic psychology.

In these days of many attempts to combine psychology and religion it is gratifying to find that Valentine does not do violence to the one or the other. The dynamics of religion are not always improved by psychological jargon; the author avoids this error. The other danger is the assumption that the psychologist is a moralist who evaluates conduct. This is questionable for most of the profession unless one assume with Valentine that the individual psychologist is well versed in the formal study of morality. On the other side, not enough clergymen are trained in psychological thinking to know the dynamics of the mind. Yet in actual practice the clinical psychologist should be aware of moral values in the patient's life. He must also be conscious of the st