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There is hardly any need to throw bouquets at David Shakow. He is one of the most distinguished and substantial contributors to the study of mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, of the last half century. The present volume is a testimonial to his work. Thumbing through the collection of his familiar essays, one is impressed by the breadth and scope of his effort to understand the schizophrenic process;
one also gains a deeper appreciation of the lessons his experience can teach us.
The papers included here center on Shakow's lifetime of research on schizophrenia. The focus of his attempt falls on the nature of the psychological defect in the schizophrenic process and on the methodological complexities of trying to assess and understand it in a research approach. His essay, "Doing Research in Schizophrenia," is a masterful distillation of forty years of continual involvement in such research. It should be required reading—in fact, I would almost say required memorizing!—for anyone interested in the research assessment of psychopathology. There is also a long historical account of the Worcester Hospital Research Service, to which Shakow was an important contributor for a number of years. It is an account worth reading as a reminiscence on one of the most outstanding, productive, and enduring efforts to study the nature and process of schizophrenia ever attempted.
Shakow recalls that in an effort to improve the level of behavior on the research wards, posters were put up in various conspicuous places with the heading in large letters, "This Way Out." There followed categories of graded behavior by which the readiness of patients to return home would be judged. The admonishment was given, "If you want to go home, improve your grade." Further, only the patients who had attained a grade B level of performance would be allowed to return home. Any hospital administrator or inpatient psychiatrist would have to shake his head and chuckle at Shakow's lament