The Loss of Loved Ones. The Effects of a Death in the Family on Personality Development. Second Edition: Edited by David M. Moriarty, M.D. St. Louis: Warren H. Green, Inc., 1983. 292 pp.

For a child, the loss of a loved one can be an especially tragic event. This book attempts to describe severe psychological sequelae in childhood and later life that follow the loss through death of a loved one: parent, sibling, or grandparent.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part consists of seven chapters by the editor, David Moriarty. This section contains his own case material and that drawn from a state mental hospital where he was director of psychiatry. Here he expresses his ideas about the significance of early loss as a causal factor in mental illness. His approach is to present verbatim interviews with adult patients who describe a childhood loss and their ongoing preoccupation with that theme. There are graphic delusional elaborations and identity disturbances in the accounts. It is difficult, however, to see how the author can be justified in making the leap he makes to his belief that early loss is a primary cause of major mental illness. On the other hand, his view that early loss is a contributory cause or precipitating factor is valid but has been expressed many times before.

Moriarty also makes a zealous plea for something to be done for