Psyciiopathology Number of Medical Review of Reviews. Edited by Dorian Feigenbaum. March, 1930.

A special number of the Medical Review of Reviews has here been devoted to a presentation of “Character Diseases and the Neuroses.”

The brief preface consisting chiefly of critical remarks directed against the state of the psychoanalytic movement in America has been written by Professor Freud.

The material has been arranged into symposiums composed of short essays, the first group of which deals with neurasthenia historically, as an organic disease, in terms of “organ libido” and as a manifestation in hysteria; the contributors to this section being Bunker, Wechsler, Brill, Fenichel and Federn. The second group is on “Character Pathology,” comprising descriptions of Freud's Ego theory, neurasthenia, hypochondriac combinations, anxiety character, hysterical character, compulsive character and the reactive forms, the authors being Schaxel, Schilder, Jones, Wittels, Lewin and Lorand, respectively.

The third and last symposium is on the “Neurotic Character as Criminal,” with neurotic, paranoid, and ordinary delinquency types discussed by Alexander, Feigenbaum and Healy.

This collection of studies has very little new to offer in the psychoanalytic field, but it brings into a focus in a concise manner the modern theories in psychopathology with their possible correlations with other aspects of medical science. Emphasis has been laid upon special methods of observation, on points of differentiation between neuroses, character traits, and criminal trends, and on the therapeutic approach to these difficulties. Many facts and relationships of interest to the medical scientist are liberally discussed, but, because of the rather strict adherence to the technical language which has grown up with the psychoanalytic movement, a knowledge of the meaning of psychoanalytic terms will be necessary equipment for the medical man to follow the trend of thought—therefore, the message will fail to reach many desirable sources.

Lewis