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Armed with two ancient formulae, and fortified with a blithe ignorance of the history of scientific methodology, Doctors Nielsen and Thompson have added yet another eclectic textbook of psychiatry to a glutted market. The 'blurb' summarizes the authors'
claims: 'For the first time in medical literature the cornerstone of a solid foundation is placed for the support of the great superstructure of psychiatry. The authors accept the discoveries which constitute the body of psychiatric culture as long as the discoveries are based on observations with apparently obvious conclusions.'
To accomplish this vast purpose, the '… present writers take the attitude that there is a truth about everything and that the truth will ultimately stand regardless of challenge or rejection' (reviewer's italics). it is impossible to determine from the context what the authors know of the long history of this hoary platitude; at any rate, one is mildly surprised to learn that of all the long line of protagonists of this Platonic-scholastic tradition, they select the priest Bernard Bolzani, with his far from original doctrine of 'truth in itself', as their spiritual forefather. Of an awareness of modern science's desperate and finally triumphant struggle against this point of view, and of the emergence of modern field theories and operational concepts, one finds no trace in this book. It is not to be wondered, therefore, that the cornerstone referred to above is the 'solid' concept of 'engrammes'. Fortunately for the authors, they do not appear to realize that this 'power-in-a-spot' theory is full of unproved and unprovable assumptions.
The truth of the matter is that the authors are not particularly well-equipped to carry out their brave pretensions with any degree of consistency. Practically all they have to say has been said before; what is new is neurological, and not of any fresh import for psychiatry. What they call obvious is often not so at all, and their vaunted 'truth' is i