Men Under Stress: By Roy R. Grinker, Lt. Colonel, M.C., A.A.F., and John P. Spiegel, Major, M.C., A.A.F. Philadelphia: The Blakiston Co., 1945. 484 pp.

This is a moving record of the effort to bring therapy to large numbers of men under the acute pressures of war. Furthermore, its pages contain comments and observations which are important for every aspect of military medicine. One may hope that it will be studied closely by all who will be responsible for the organization of our military establishments in the future.

In one sense the book is an excellent semi-technical report to lay and medical colleagues on the dramatic experiences of aviation psychiatry. It is also directed to young flight surgeons and air-force psychiatrists, for whom it will be a practical handbook and an invaluable intellectual and emotional stimulus. In contrast with most of what is written in this field, it is unsparingly honest about the rôle of all libidinal forces, including homosexual loves and hates in the production of mental illnesses. At the same time it serves a collateral purpose of great importance: it is a challenge to our peacetime ways of thinking about psychopathology and particularly about the processes of psychotherapy, both analytic and otherwise, capable of shaking us out of accustomed and complacent ruts. There will be something wrong with the psychiatrist and analyst who, after reading this book, does not unsparingly reëxamine his own concepts and his own techniques.