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This ambitious text is making an impressive splash in certain medical ponds. It offers, according to its foreword, 'Summaries of what is known today about all the functional elements of sex behavior and reproduction—endocrine, neurological, psychological and psychiatric'. There are twenty-nine chapters by sixteen contributors.
Quantitative analysis: twenty-one chapters are devoted to the first half of the title, to the biology and medical pathology of human
reproduction. Only six chapters are devoted to the second half, human sexual behavior.
Qualitative analysis: the biological and medical contributions are almost uniformly excellent, covering such subjects as Infertility, Hermaphroditism, Gonadal Failure, and Virilizing Adrenal Hyperplasia. There is also a useful appendix on Drugs of Endocrine Interest. The six chapters on human behavior add up to a dull mechanical mélange, almost devoid even of dynamic psychiatry. The banal contributions of two psychiatrists reveal in pure form the most complete insulation against psychoanalytic knowledge.
Another striking contrast is seen in the chapter on Reproductive Behavior in Mammals (nonhuman), by Robert W. Goy, which has more of psychological interest and value than the chapters dealing with human behavior.
The volume therefore has some value as a reference work on specific subjects. It cannot be recommended as a textbook for any student unfamiliar with basic psychoanalytic contributions to sexual behavior.