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This collection of hand-written accounts of different pathological conditions, selected from the files of the late Carney Landis, has been edited by Professor Mettler and Dr. Landis' widow. Even though the chapters are well organized, the work remains essentially a diffuse collection of writings on several patients who are quoted throughout the book. The selections are not organized in terms of theoretical considerations; the aim has been to present the raw material. Chapters of Professor Landis' original manuscript on mystical and religious experience and sexuality, as well as others, have been omitted.
In some areas the coverage is deficient and “dated”; specifically, in the chapter on disturbed perception this reviewer found no attempt to deal with psychosomatic elements in terms of Felix Deutsch's “sensory gateways” or other relevant sensory modalities. The same criticism applies to chapters on disorders of volition, on reality and depersonalization, and on the philosophy of insanity.
There are notable scholarly omissions: for instance, in connection with insulin therapy, the theory of Sakel is mentioned, but nothing pertaining to the recent literature. In the presentation on electro-convulsive therapy not even the name of Cerletti, its inventor and discoverer, is mentioned, nor the recent literature. In discussion of psycho-surgery the Portuguese surgeon who invented the method is not mentioned, nor did the author or his editors take stock of the voluminous literature which has since appeared. With regard to psychotherapy, no effort has been made to give even a brief survey of the major schools of thought which find expression in present-day writings.
The collection has value because it will teach the student that one has to listen to the patient—and how one listens to the patient—if any effort is going to be asserted on his behalf. It is a compact summary of all types and varieties of the common pathological syndromes encountered in ordinary psychiatric practice.