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Yrjö O. Alanen, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, is known for his main work “Schizophrenia - its origins and need - adapted treatment” from 1997 (London: Karnac). Having retired from hospital and teaching positions, Professor Alanen now has time for the love of his youth, literature and the arts, and in his book, he has returned to the study of psychology, art and literature, from which he was weaned in his youth by his General Practitioner father, who “delegated” to him the task of becoming a physician. What once was meant to be a field of study has retained its value as a hobby, and in his book, Professor Alanen returns to subjects that he has followed and written about since his student years. The scrutiny of these objects has later been enriched by psychoanalytic training and a wide experience in a life-work in psychiatry, as a researcher, a teacher, and a clinician.
Alanen begins his book with “close-ups” of his father-in-law, architect Alvar Aalto. We may read some characterizations of life-events that infl uenced his development, of his values, his working habits, and naturally anecdotes and remembrances of characteristics of his own. As he describes the characteristics of Aalto's architecture, Alanen talks about Aalto's relationship to the world of women. Aalto admired women, he demonstrated knowledge of and admiration for them. Feminine shapes occur and re-occur in Aalto's work, which Alanen sees as connected to Aalto's close relationship to his mother, whom he suddenly lost when he was eight years old. Aalto's endeavours of reaching a mother through creative work, his sensitivity, and his receptiveness to the wishes of his clients, probably infl uenced the humane and comprehensive nature of his architecture. Aalto was a builder of towers, but also a ma