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From New Zealand comes this book, concise and yet quite complete, lucid and well-organized, a manual admirably suited to the needs of most psychiatric nurses, first year residents, and nonspecialists. Details of such procedures as electroshock and insulin therapies, tube feeding, and postleucotomy care are included, features unusual in psychiatric texts. A general acceptance of psychoanalytic concepts evident in discussions of etiology and symptom-formation contrasts sharply with an apparent reservation regarding the efficacy and value of analytic treatment.
Of the two major weaknesses in this book, the first is its inadequate treatment of the subject of psychotherapy. At times this amounts to an almost casual and indifferent attitude; thus, 'It is relatively infrequent for an anxiety state to require expert psychiatric treatment'. The treatment of hysteria is undertaken 'with little certainty of success'. Obsessive-compulsives 'are interesting to analyze but analysis often continues … with no benefit to anyone but the analyst'!
The second weakness is the absence of a bibliography, which might have helped the reader to become acquainted with less nihilistic attitudes toward psychotherapy.
Despite these shortcomings, this is a good book. It is especially gratifying to learn of the enlightened attitude of New Zealanders toward certification and other psychiatric legal problems.