Emotional Factors in Cardiovascular Disease

This is a well written book in nontechnical, popular style. No phase of the subject is gone into deeply, because this book is written for the practicing physician and not for the psychiatrist. A few sentences in the introduction are worth quoting: "The traditional old family doctor very often was an excellent psychosomatic physician, although he never thought of himself as such. His patients usually were intimate friends, and he was as familiar with their emotional life as with their physical peculiarities. He was well aware that the two frequently were closely related." The present-day complexities of medical practice have taken the physician away from this intimate contact with his patient. However, the emotional factors are still present and need evaluation in respect to diagnosis and treatment. That is precisely what the author has done in this book.

The problems of "cardiac neurosis," functional heart disease, neurocirculatory asthenia, hypertension, the