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In preparing this book, the editor selected contributions from the seven countries which seemed to him to represent most typically circumscribed schools of European psychiatric thought. However, the nine authors give the impression that there is no such thing as a school of psychiatric thought within the confines of any European national border. In each country there is more than one school of thought which often originated elsewhere (the Soviet Union is an exception) and is influential throughout Europe. Schools of psychiatric thought such as Bleuler's cannot be identified with particular nations. Yet countries differ in their 'tastes' in psychiatry. Existential analysis, which originated in Switzerland with Binswanger, is predominant in Germany, influential in France, and almost nonexistent in England. Aubrey Lewis, author of the section on Great Britain, suggests that this is due to a kind of conservatism and scientific scepticism in the English character, but this thesis is not altogether convincing.
This reviewer found the comparatively brief introduction by far the most interesting and thought-provoking section. Using a sociological approach, it attempts to reconcile and integrate the mass of data contributed by the various authors. One is impressed by the fact that while practically every trend of psychiatric thought originated in Europe, most basic research is being done in the United States. Consequently, psychiatric practice and teaching in every European country, except the Soviet Union, show clear signs of a decisive and increasing influence from the United States. Various international meetings and the sending of trainees to the United States support this trend. (A countercurrent also exists but is distinctly less important.) Perhaps the most important export of American psychiatry is the emphasis on individual psychodynamic psychotherapy and other psychoanalytically-oriented approaches such as 'milieu therapy' and 'total approach'. The tren