Sometimes the reviewer of a book is tempted to read the table of contents, then to glance through the pages and finally to give his general impression. It is impossible to do this with Gillespie's book because it fascinates the reader from the very beginning by its wide scope and perspective. It is not the author's intention merely to give his experiences and views on mental disorders as they are precipitated by the war but rather to develop his basic concept that psychiatry, above all medical specialties, is a 'social science' which enables us, through the study of psychoneuroses, to uncover and influence social factors, as far as they are responsible for the causation and precipitation of individual neuroses. Gillespie