Brain and Behaviour: Induction as a Fundamental Mechanism of Neuro-Psychic Activity. An Experimental and Clinical Study with Consideration of Educational, Mental-Hygienic and General Sociological Implications

Ischlondsky, a Russian physician formerly in practice in Paris and now in New York, has long been a student of conditioned reflexes and the deeper psychical layers of the personality. Two large volumes on Neuropsyche and Hirnrinde appeared in Berlin in 1930. A further work on "protoformotherapy," the use of internal secretion of embryonic tissue, was issued in 1937. In "Brain and Behavior," the author, using well known psychologic technics of human experimentation, expounds the theory of "induction" in neural responses, or excitation versus inhibition, as a simultaneous process. More than half the book is given over to a minute description of the author's investigations. Like all the works of Ischlondsky, the book is too long and at least half could have been omitted with profit. The explanations for behavior tend to be too schematized and not entirely trustworthy; verbosity frequently outweighs logic. The book lacks a bibliography.