Interpretation of Schizophrenia. 2nd ed. Silvano Arieti. New York:  Basic Books, Inc., 1974.  xvii + 756 pp.

This comprehensively rewritten and expanded (by more than 200 pages) edition of a well-known book reflects the additional knowledge of the subject that the author accumulated in the nineteen years that elapsed since the publication of the first edition. The original work was divided into six parts and 24 chapters; moreover, only one chapter of 44 pages was devoted to psychotherapy, and it contained no clinical illustrations. Admirably reorganized and abundantly cross-referenced, the revised version contains nine parts and 45 chapters, eight of them (136 pages) on psychotherapy, including reports of two cases. This edition also contains new sections, oriented to the student, on symptomatology, sociocultural and epidemiological factors, prevention, and somatic (including genetic) studies of schizophrenia.

The scholarly approach and lucid writing that helped to account for the value of the 1955 edition as a reference work for both the student and the experienced practitioner are retained. Exceptionally good is Arieti's survey of the literature, which he integrates and synthesizes from various points of view and then discusses from his own orientation and experience. Indeed, the book reflects a great interest in assembling, communicating, and interpreting the theories and observations that have dominated the literature, whether or not these contributions have facilitated effective treatment of the schizophrenic patient.

Th evolution of the concept of schizophrenia is traced in a chapter focusing on Kraepelin, Bleuler, Meyer, Freud, Jung, and Sullivan. Another chapter, recounting the history of the psychotherapeutic approach to the disorder, accords major attention to the Freudian and Kleinian schools, which adhere to the classical psychoanalytic technique; to John Rosen's “direct psychoanalysis”; and to Frieda Fromm-Reichman and her school, founded theoretically “on Freud and to a larger extent on Sullivan” (p. 542), which Arieti identifies as one of the “major roots” (p.