670 BOOK RBVIEWS

‘&KS is the first compreh~s~~e textbook of clinical psychology in German, and its appearance marks a milestone in the development of this discipline in a country which until quite recently did not recognize the existence or importance of non-medical workers in the psychiatric field. The tremendous growth of behaviour therapy in Germany has changed the situation remarkably and many German psychologists are now enter- ing into this new field. Under the circumstances one might have been forgiven for expecting a book which did not come up to reasonable expectations in countries where clinical psychology has existed for a much longer time. However, as it turns out, no allowances have to be made at all. This is on any account an excel- lent introduction; sound, fairminded and thorough. It deals in detail with behaviour therapy methods, with client-centred therapy, and with psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. The author clearly does nut believe that any of these three movements possesses the sole key to psychiatric treatment, and for a text- book this is undoubt~ly the correct attitude. The selection of authors and papers quoted is exceflent, and I would be hard put to select an English language text which would serve as a textbook for a course better than this. If the quality of German clinical psychology is as high as the quality of this textbook, then we can expect great things in the near future.

H.J. EYSEVCK

DR. HARDING PRICE has produced a slim volume intended ‘as an exercise in the clinical care of the mentally ill’. It is aimed at candidates preparing for the Diploma in ~sycbological Medicine. Most of the book is taken up with clinical vignettes, followed by unsystematic series of questions about the diagnosis, di~erentiai diagnosis, management and outcome. These are then answered in the text from a dynamic and medical viewpoint.

Behavjourajmethodsof therapy get mention, with the author’s appraisal of their usefulness-for example.. . . ‘Another factor may be that alcoholics (possibly due to brain damage) are behavioural~y restricted and there- fore do not respond well to conditioning therapy’ and ‘Aversion therapy-from moral considerations it is extremely doubtful whether patients should be exposed to this type of treatment’.

It seems likely that the volume will appeal to few who read this journal.

J. CONNOLLY

Crofts, The Century Psychoiogy Series, Meredith #rporation, New York, 1972. 4X0 pp. $14.25.

Ters is one of the more important books to appear in the behavioural sciences for a generation. It was compiled by two psychologists who recognized that learning has crucial biological and evolutionary con- straints. So great are those limits that they determine much of the bchavioural variance seen in many experi- ments. In this volume evidence is collected for this conclusion. It is given as 35 chapters or readings from workers in fields as diverse as classical conditioning, instrumental learning, avoidance learning, ethology, comparative and clinical psychology and education. The Editors show a rare breadth as well as depth and have selected sources ranging from Thorndike’s doctoral dissertation in 1898 to Tinbcrgen’s ‘Study of Instinct’, Piaget, and numerous journals in psychofogy and unpublished conference papers. Unlike many compilations this collection of readings is the statement of a theory in an unconventional format. The theory is presented in headnotes before each reading; the tatter then supplies data to support the theoretical points.

All chapters have a common thread: Animals and men are not blank slates upon which experience can write anything with equal facility; rather the learning of an organism in a laboratory or in its natural habitat results not only from past and present contingencies for that individual, but also from the contingencies which its species faced before it----its evolutionary history and genetic outcome.