Averill Lawrence Augustus, and Kempf, Florence C. Psychology Applied To Nursing. [Philadelphia  W. B. Saunders Co. $2.50.]

The first edition of this manual was outstanding for its many useful features and the general service it provided in bringing together in succinct form a good basic outline of psychological knowledge particularly relevant to nursing. The issue at hand is the second edition—rearranged and enlarged with additional matter well chosen to increase the value of the work along deeper lines of presentation.

The text has been redivided into five sections, dealing respectively with the regulation of behavior, the mechanisms underlying behavior, the relationship of learning to behavior, behavior in specific life periods, and the relations of the fundamental organizational forms of behavior to the emotional life. In the first are chapters on behavior motivations, habits and attitudes and the major questions of conflict, adjustment, and maladjustment. The section on basic behavior mechanisms touches upon the sense organs and their functions; the constitution and role of the nervous system; and muscles and glands. The third division consists of three chapters on learning: How to Learn Efficiently; Principles and Conditions of Learning; and the Individual Learner. The psychological problems of childhood are presented in the fourth, while in the fifth the general subjects are emotional developments in relation to individual and social life, and the importance of psychological understanding to the nurse's functions.

One of the most useful additions are the pages on psychoanalysis. Beside a brief account of the history there are sections on unconscious action in the formation of emotional states; on conceptions of the libido and ego; and on the bearing of Freudian interpretation to the management and treatment of specific categories of symptoms and disorders. The inclusion of this material adds a new dimension of value to a most serviceable handbook on the psychology of nursing.