In their preface the authors state their purpose, "to improve the practitioner's sense of security in dealing with emotional and psychologic manifestations, overt and covert, while maintaining the integrity of his own particular interests." Is the book likely to achieve its purpose? In my opinion it is most unlikely to do so. The best thing about this volume is its brevity—168 pages.
The nine chapters encompass "human biology," psychiatric aspects of surgery, psychosomatics, psychiatric disorders and methods of treatment, psychopharmacology, and the uses of hypnosis in general practice. The authors keep to their promise to avoid "all psychiatric jargon." This is laudable, but unfortunately the jargon is replaced by platitudes and verbiage which fail to ensure useful communication.
A foretaste of what is to come can be found in the preface, in which the authors announce, "Human biology, which probably ranks with physical and psychiatric illness as a source of