Book Notes and Reviews

Books received are acknowledged and given a brief description in this section. Selections serving a variety of interests will be made from these for a more extensive review, as far as space will allow.

Uchoa, Darcy M. Psiquiatria E. Psicanalise, Preface by Prof. Mauricio de Medeiros. [Sao Paulo, Brazil:  Livraria Vademecum. 1952. Pp.  324.]

This rather large paper-bound monograph is well organized in subject matter and printed in easily readable type. It consists of twenty chapters which begin with a discussion of the influence of dynamic psychology as a modern school of psychiatry and continue with descriptions of the total organism concepts, psychobiology, the psychoanalytic theory of instincts and a thorough review of the Freudian dream work mechanisms.

A large part of the book is devoted to the various neuroses and psychoses in terms of the psychoanalytic understanding of the different phenomena involved in their origins and expressions. The procedures and theories of Adler, Jung, Stekel and Alexander are brought into focus in the description of fundamentals of scientific psychotherapy, and in the mixed techniques. There is a chapter on countertransference and a well developed one with 25 references to the literature on the psychoanalytic interpretation of religion. There are 333 reference items in the appended bibliography. The material covered, the precision of the definitions and the adequate documentation make this book desirable for the use of medical students and others needing a dynamically oriented psychiatric text.

Vinacke, W. Edgar. The Psychology of Thinking. [New York:  McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1952. Pp.  392. $5.50.]

One of man's most challenging intellectual frontiers is the systematic study of that variety of human behavior called “thinking”, and this volume by Professor Vinacke presents a systematic discussion of facts and theories concerned with this mental function and formulates some of the basic problems in this field.

Among the topics covered a