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This book is an attempt to interest the nurse in mental diseases in an intelligent way, explaining to her some of the fundamental principles involved in their mechanisms, and also to be of assistance to her so that she can more readily relate herself to her patient in a helpful way. It attempts to give her an understanding of the way in which the patient attempts to utilize the nurse and the mechanisms of the transference, both positive and negative, and also of those subtle by-plays which depend upon not only the characteristics of the patient's illness, but the weak spots in the nurse's armor. It is a first attempt, so far as the reviewer knows, to cover this ground, and while it is done very well from the point of view of the reader who has had psychoanalytic experience, the reviewer wonders how many nurses could possibly understand it and feels convinced that if it were used for a textbook it would have to be taught by not only a highly trained person, but a person who had developed an effective technique of teaching. The implication is that the nurse who is to take care of the neurotic patient will have to have herself analyzed if she is going to render the best service. This means of course a tremendously high standard of requirements for nursing, and it is very difficult to see at this day how one can expect they will ever be reached. High standards, however, are a good thing to shoot at, and this book outlines certain ideals which it is well worth while that the nurse should have in mind. At least if she cannot digest all of the details set forth therein she can understand that she may have very definite limitations and that there are ways of dealing with these conditions which are perhaps better than those which she would naturally and instinctively employ.
White.