Noyes, Arthur P. Modern Clinical Psychiatry. Second Edition. [Philadelphia:  W. B. Saunders Company.]

The second edition of this textbook carries on the worthy and commendable features of the work as originally presented. The approach to the subject of psychiatry is dynamic and to a certain extent psychoanalytic. Doctor Noyes, who is superintendent of the Norristown State Hospital, has incorporated the more acceptable principles of the several schools of contemporary psychiatry into a well-written and lucid book.

The chapter on psychoneurosis contains considerable of the theories and concepts of orthodox psychoanalysis. The value and insight derived from an analytical approach to the problems of the patient is stressed and the debt of psychiatrists to the work of Freud is acknowledged. However, the author does not mention the real significance of infantile sexuality with its determining effect on the subsequent development of the individual personality. There are very brief references to the CEdipus and castration complexes but one should not expect any lengthy discussion of such specific analytical theory in a book intended primarily for physicians, psychiatrists and students who are not analytically minded. The more speculative (to him) of the theories and hypotheses of psychoanalysis are not acceptable. There is little mention made of minor personality disorders as stammering, enuresis, mood changes or other symptoms of essentially a neurotic reaction. These should be differentiated from the cases assigned to the vague and unsatisfactory heading of psychopathic personality.

The early chapters dealing with the dynamics of the mind including mental mechanisms and motives are exceptionally analytically inclined. The various specific mental disorders are then taken up in individual chapters. Psychoneurosis is given its due merit as to its importance and frequency. There is a brief interesting chapter dealing with the newer subject of psychosomatic medicine. A chapter on psychiatric conditions in children would have been helpful to the reader.

The author shows excellent