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“I would that mine enemy would write a book” is an old quotation but if the originator had really decided to vent his spleen he should have specified a “textbook”. Obviously, any volume dealing with a subject as broad as “abnormal psychology” can be considered as good or bad, depending wholly upon the viewpoint of the reviewer. To me, this particular text, while undoubtedly containing omissions, seems particularly good in that it is well balanced and certainly supplies adequate material for students at the level for which it has been prepared.
The authors have begun with a general orientation section, following which they have launched into a discussion of separate disease entities. Each chapter contains a few introductory paragraphs, several splendid exemplary case histories, statistical data, history of the illness, organic findings if any, psychological findings, and a summary. This comprehensive pattern is followed throughout and has resulted in the production of a textbook which is logical, understandable, sufficiently comprehensive for its purpose and yet not over-weighted with useless information. Each illness is adequately covered and about the only criticism which can be made is directed at the actual sequence of the chapters themselves. This is a minor point since the over-all organization of a book can be extremely varied. It would seem, however, that had the authors included a section on the neuroses rather than having separate chapters for hysteria and the traumatic neuroses, it might have been easier to follow their concept. It is true, they list the two latter sections as neuroses but by presenting them in separate chapters they tend to break up the continuity of the reader's thought. It might have been better also had the authors placed the chapters on involutional melancholia and paranoia further forward in the book, preceding the chapters on neuroses.
These are minor points and should not detract in any way from the splendid fashion in which the auth