Textbook of Abnormal Psychology. Revised Edition: By Carney Landis and M. Marjorie Bolles. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950. 634 pp.

The first edition of this textbook previously reviewed in this QUARTERLY, in the words of the author 'has become outdated in five years'. Numerous advances in the fields of clinical psychology and psychiatry have been incorporated into this revised edition and, as before, in a cautious and sober manner. The section on psychoanalysis, previously characterized by glaring inadequacies, has been corrected to some degree, but is still grossly inadequate, particularly in the light of the admission that 'most of the explanations advanced in specialized psychopathological studies are phrased in the light of the concepts built up by Freud and his followers'. It still remains difficult to see how college students, for whom this book is intended, can derive any glimmer of understanding from an account which fails to be illuminated by convincing illustrations that can be derived from applying the rich insights of psychoanalysis. The section on the neuroses is pitifully meager. There is no change in the authors' sterile eclecticism. The style is dry and pedestrian. I fail to see how such a textbook, and there are too many like it, can satisfy the hunger of students for a vital, affective understanding of the vagaries of human behavior.