Book Reviews

THE WILL TO HAPPINESS. By Arnold Hutschneck­er, 174 1Jages, New York: Prentice-HaU, 1965,$4.95.

Those of you who have read "The Will to Live"and "Love and Hate in Human Nature" will be de­lighted and intellectually rewarded with "The Willto Happiness."

Dr. Hutschnecker's type of writing is clear andconcise. Much of the material used is based on hisexpt'riences with Pavlovian psychology wherein hediscusses at length the problems encountered in con­ditioning and reconditioning in order to brinjl; abouta normal state of health. He discusses especially howone can recognize destructive drives that are triggeredby signals and how they can be replaced by counter­signals-a favorable response in modern psychoana­lytic tht'rapy. It is metaphorically correct to assumethat Freudian psychoanalysis has a kinship to Pavlov­ian psychology. The reader, however, must be re­minded that Pavlov worked with animals the greaterpart of his life while Freud engaged his studies withhumans. Adaptation, following a mature understand­ing of oneself is based on an exchange of energy:adult for infantile. If this exchange is made, thereader will inherit "The Will to Happint>ss." Whilethis theoretical conception is acceptable followingpsychoanalysis, it would be impossible, in this writer'sopinion, to produce a lasting exchange of energythrough the process of reading based on our inabilityto "see" ourselves objectively. The Self fails in re­conditioning, but, like the animal, he needs trainedauthoritarian figures for that purpose. It seems to methat thl' author attempts to impregnate the minds ofthe readers that if they read this book they will beable to make changes in their mentation that willresult in "The Will to Happiness." The book, how­ever, is interesting to the lay person in serving himwith the knowledge of human behavior and will gainfor the professional man pleasurable hours in review­ing the problems of conditioning.-HAIIIIY PEIILO­WITZ, ~I.D.

SUICIDE AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. By ErwinStengel. 128 pages, Boltimore: Penguin Books,1964, 951' (Poperback).

Professor Stengel approachl>s these two problemsfrom the epidemiologic point of view. I say "twoproblems" because they are treated as such. The au­thor considers them as separate entities and does notregard all suicide attempts, as, merely, unsuccessfulsuicides.

The statistics, particularly as they relate to cul­ture, environment, religion, age and sex are exten­sively reviewed as are, also, the various commonlyemployed methods. Motives and psychodynamicsare l>xplored and the altitudes of society before andafter the event described. In the last section, Dr.Stengel advances his thoughts on the subject of pre-

March-April, 1966

vention and prophylaxis with considerable emphasison the sociolojl;ic factors.

This is a good reference book, particularly forthose who are interested in a public health approach.-LEONARD J. SCHIFF, M.D.

THE FUNCTIONAL PATHOLOGY OF DISEASE.Second Edition. EdUed by Arthur GraUman, M.D.,949 pages, New York: McGraw-HiU, 1963, $15.00.

The avowed purpose of this book is to present thebasic physiologic principles of clinical medicine,which it does very ably through the efforts of twenty­seven authors under Dr. Grollman's editorial Il·ader­ship.

Part I proceeds from a discussion of energetics todetailed descriptions of the metabolism of carbo­hydrate, fat and protein. A refreshing chaptN onvitamins is followed by chapters on water and electro­lyte metabolism and metabolic diseases.

Part II deals with the cardiovascular system and isprincipally concerned with dynamics. In the chapteron electrocardiography one feels the lack of somediscussion of the changes taking place after myo­cardial infarction.

Part III, on the respiratory system, contains a shortnote on respiratory neuroses which is one of the fewreferences to psychosomatic illness to be found inthis book. Psychogenic influences are hardly men­tioned in Part IV (the digestive system).

Blood and the blood-forming organs are wellcovered in Part V and the endocrine system receivesextensive description in Part VI. Succeeding partsare devoted to the renal, locomotor and nervous sys­tems. In the latter there is an interesting physiologicalhypothesis for the origin of psychosomatic illness.

Last, and one of the best, is Part X on infectionand immunity which also includes allergy and auto­immunity.

This is not a book which one will read from coverto cover unless he is a medical student or preparingfor board examination. It is a good book to have onhand for reference or for selective reading.-LEoNAIIDJ. SCHIFF, l\I.D.

READINGS IN PHARMACOLOGY. Louis Shuster,Ph.D., Editor. Boston: Little Brown & Co., 294pages, 1962, Price $5.50.

In recent years Dr. Shuster has used a collectionof medical classics and contemporary papers of scien­tific merit to teach pharmacology to sophomore stu­dents at Tufts University, School of Medicine. Thesewere chosen primarily to "give a representativesampling of approaches and techniques that havebeen applied to some of the basic problems inpharmacology." Readings in Pharmacology containsnineteen of these papers grouped under the majorheadings of "Autonomic Pharmacology," "Cardio­vascular Drugs," "Pharmacology of the Central Nerv-

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