224 BOOii REVIEWS

OSCAR K. Buuos (Ed.): Personaliry Tcsis and Reviews. The Gryphon Press, i\;.J.. 1970. B35.W.

THE SERIES of books reviewing personaIity, educational and general psychological tests which 0. K. Buros started almost 40 years ago, has been of invaluable help to psychologists, educationaiisrs. Iibrarians, clinicians and all others concerned with psychometrics and mental measurement. By either quoting published reviews of tests, or having such review-s specially written by experts, Buros has certainly helped to a con- siderable degree in raising the level of excellence which characterizes these measures. This latest addition to the series deals with personality tests and reviews thereof, and this book undoubt~diy constitutes 3

tremendous achievement: it is impossible to imagine the complexities and difliculties an editing job of this kind imposes on the author. It is difficult to review such a book in any meaningful sense; all that one can say is that the level of scholarship is as high as ever. and that no one working in the field can afford to be without this latest addition to the Buros stable.

H. J. EYSENCK

J. hi. R. DELGADO: Physicut Cutrtrol oJrhe Mid Harper & Row, New York (1969).

PROFESSOR Delgado is one of the pioneers in the development of the technology for electrical stim~llation of the brain in unanaesthetized and free-moving animals, In “Physical Control of the Mind” he describes for the general reader the methods and results of his own studies on the effects on the motor and emotional hehaviour of cats and monkeys of electrical stin~lilation of selected sites in the central nervous system. He stresses in particular his important demonstrations that stimulation triggers behavioural mechanisms preestablished in the nervous system and that the behaviour evoked may be modified by environmental variables.

Readers of this Journal will be most interested in his discussion of the application of this technoiogy to the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders in man. As yet, however, although intra-cerebral electrodes may be used to record from damaged and abnormally discharging structures, their use for electrical stimulation has prodltced results of scientific interest rather than direct therapeutic benefit. As Delgado says himsell . ‘.the classical methods of punishment and reward through normal inputs are more effective in inducing purposeful changes in bchavioural activity than the modification of emotional tuning evoked by cerebral stinltliati~n. Several of the psycho-active drugs may be nearly as effective and arc far simpler to use” (pp. 223). Delgado discusses the ethical and social implications of the use of electrical stimulation of the brain in man and argues that it raises no ethical issues that are not already raised by the use of pm-frontal leucotomy and psychotropic drugs. Furthermore he makes it quite clear that there is no

theoretical or practical possibiiity of electrical stimuiation being used to change attitudes or personality, l-lo maintains that “human relations are not going to be governed by electrodes. but they could be better understood if we considered not only environmental factors but also the intra-cerebral mechanisms respon- sible for their reception and elaboration” (pp. 176).

The book is loosely written and much of it is rcperitive. Furthermore sections I. II and V are taken

up with a largely irrelevant discussion of philosophic issues Part of this book, presumably sections III

and IV. was originally given as a series of lectures presented at the New York Academy of Sciences, and it viould perhaps have been better if the lectures had been directly reprinted rvithout the extra padding. Nnne- thelessselcctive reading ofthesesecrions will provide for the non-specialist reader a useful. if over-dramatized account of an area of n~uroph~s~ological investigation which is of particular interest and importance to behavioural scientists.

R. E. FASStNGH4Ll

CYRIL M. FRANKS (Ed.): Behariarrr T%rerapy: Appruiraf and Sroft~. McGraw-Will. London (1969). 730 pp.; 153s.

TEN YEARS ago Kety critic&d bchaviourists for ignoring the importance of sub,iective data. He commented that “Nature is an elusive quarry, and it is foolhardy to pursue her with one eye closed and one foot hobbled” (1960, p. 1862). This book illustrates the additional handicap of earplugs and handcuffs. Not only arc: subjective phenomena largely unheeded, but the contributions to behavioural science of genetics, biology,