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This reviewer knows of no major discipline save psychiatry which does not boast its historian. A number of brief isolated articles, an occasional short survey in a textbook, a brief work here and there covering a limited period, these only whet the appetite for this most fascinating of historical feasts. Small wonder that this is so, for it is difficult to conceive of another task within the scope of medical history which would require so broad a grasp of the manifold cross currents of human history as well as so exacting a technical equipment for its performance.
To enlighten the educated layman about the main trends of psychological science Winkler and Bromberg have written a most engaging account of the lives of the pioneers in this field. In the main they hew to sound historical lines and one can have little fault to find with the fair and equitable manner in which they present the divergent schools of psychology and psychiatry. Spectacular chapter headings and occasional lapses into journalistic jargon, things which are probably inevitable in any popular work of this nature, are here minimal in number. It is refreshing to read a book of this type in which the authors succeed in telling their story in a convincing and effective manner without succumbing too often to the temptation of playing down to their audience.