Mental Illness: A Guide for the Family: By Edith M. Stern with the collaboration of Samuel W. Hamilton, M.D. New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1942. 134 pp.

A book written by a layman for laymen on a professional subject is frequently more understandable and educationally useful than one written by a professional. Mrs. Stern points out in her book that doctors often become so conversant with certain concepts and are so used to their technical terms, that they have difficulty in making themselves understood. Frequently a person with the fresh enthusiasm of recent discovery is an ideal exponent. When this also happens to be an experienced writer, as in the present instance, the combination is a most happy one.

Mrs. Stern became interested in the mental hospital mainly through on investigation of occupational therapy. With this and other studies, a metamorphosis took place in her own thinking about what these institutions were like and inspired her to write this book. 'There are books', she says in her preface, 'about how to run a household and how to bring up dogs, but there is no book telling people how to behave and what to do when one of their dear ones falls mentally ill. This guide book for relatives, I hope, will fill that need.' The book attempts both to combat fallacies about mental illness and to offer practical advice to families of patients. In this connection, Dr. Samuel Hamilton points out in his introduction that not only is the hospital physician usually limited in the time he has to speak with relatives,