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This work is a translation, revised and enlarged, of the first two parts, constituting an independent volume, of the 2nd edition of the Swedish original. The writer is the Medical Superintendent of the Stockholm Mental Hospital.
The book itself is a scholarly and critical presentation of the subject dealt with, in three main Sections and an Introduction. The First Section discusses The Functional Structure of Mental Life and Its Morbid Changes, the Second Section The Causes of Mental Disease, and the Third Section The Treatment of Mental Diseases. At the end of the work there is a chapter devoted to a critique of psychoanalysis. The writer is much opposed to the doctrines of Professor Freud and sets forth his reasons in detail and with moderation and with a basis of actual first-hand contact with the literature. The work as a whole is really a splendid contribution to the study and the understanding of the human mind, especially of mental disease, but the reviewer cannot help but feel that the author has missed the real significance of the psychoanalytic contribution.
The Introduction, which treats in part of the story of the care of the insane, whereas it deals with much that is usually found in such a presentation, gives a very adequate though brief picture of the condition of these unfortunate people in the northern countries and in this respect constitutes a contribution of especial value.
The book as a whole is well documented, each chapter is provided with a bibliography of the literature at the end, and the critical and analytic attitude of the author is manifest throughout in extensive quotations from the current literature which are made the basis of his comments. The work is well illustrated and as a whole is a distinct contribution to the American literature on the subject treated.
White