Book Reviews 615

understanding of our mental life. Whereas Skinner was willing to concede that there might be inner mental events but, if so, they were of no importance for our understanding of behaviour, Rachlin goes further and insists that it is our external observable actions that constitute our mental life. In so doing he challenges not just old-fashioned introspectionist psychology but fashionable cognitivism which identifies the mental with internal representations.

One way of promoting a new doctrine is to give it a respectable pedigree. Rachlin goes back accordingly to those founding fathers of rational discourse, Plato and Aristotle. Since Plato is often regarded as the archetypal dualist, this demands something of a tour de force. However, after a scholarly review of their writings (he devotes two chapters to Aristotle), the author is able to conclude with some justification that: "both philosophers viewed perception, cognition, and all mental life as modes of interaction of a person with the world" (p. 116). He then rather more briefly disposes in one chapter of both Augustine and Descartes whom he blames for promoting an erroneous dualism. In a final chapter he takes on three contemporary philosophers (Block, Searle and Putnam) who have attacked behaviourism for one reason or another. He devotes a section to a behaviourist account of pain, as pain sensations are often cited as a prototypical instance of an internal, phenomenal experience that defies behavioural analysis. But it struck me, at least, that here he was toiling.

Already on p. 16 the author warns his readers: "Teleological behaviorism is intuitively hard to accept. Our very language goes against it." A reading of this book suggests that this is indeed an understatement! One is left wondering whether, while writing his clever treatise, the author ever paused to commune with himself, rehearse his arguments mentally and ponder what he should say next. There is much to be said in favour of methodological behaviourism but that there is an inner life which each of us can introspect, as well as an external life which all can observe, is something that I can no more doubt after reading Rachlin's book than I could beforehand.

JOHN BELOFF

MARTIN E. P. SELIGMAN: What You Can Change and What You Can't--The Complete Guide to Successful Self-lmprovement. Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1994). x + 293 pp. $23.00

Seligrnan needs no introduction to readers of this journal. His work on helplessness and depression, his theoretical contributions to learning theory, and his role as an educator within and beyond psychology, are only too well known. In this, his latest book, he addresses the general reader. The aim is to provide advice and guidance on self-improvement. Specifically, the book aims to show what can be changed and what can not, and goes on to offer advice on how to affect changes where they are possible. The areas discussed include: anxiety, panic, depression, phobias, obsessions and compulsions, sexual difficulties, anger, eating habits and alcohol problems. Seligman writes sensibly in an easy narrative style, and gives basically sound advice.

Does the book achieve its aim? Seligman certainly summarizes well what we knew about the various problems of human behaviour, and provides useful notes and references to back up what he says in an unobtrusive notes section at the end of the book. For the major disorders, he provides a summary table; these are useful, but because of their inevitable simplicity, sometimes problematic. Overall, the book is good and sound, much better than most self-improvement books that fill the shelves of bookshops these days. Its sensible combination of realism and optimism makes it stand apart. Some experts in the various clinical fields, however, might find that his message is not optimistic enough with regard to their areas. With the outcome literature often so hard to interpret, there are legitimate grounds for disagreement. Seligman has chosen to put caution first, and many would think he is right in this.

P. DE SILVA

CHARLES G. COSTELLO (Ed.): Symptoms of Depression. Wiley, New York (1993). x + 326 pp. £29.95

'There is considerable confusion among researchers and clinicians about the nature of experiential and behavioural disorders. This seems to be because thinking in syndromes is to bite off more than they can chew. The book will bring readers back to the basic building blocks of syndromes and diagnoses, namely symptoms.' This could be viewed as the editor's mission statement. To this end, he has collected expert reviews on each of twelve major symptoms of depression, including dysphoria, hopelessness, sleeping and eating problems, anhedonia, and shame and guilt. Each chapter is structurally similar, including definition, review of clinical and experimental knowledge, the functional relevance of the symptom to other symptoms of depression and the implications for clinical practice. The editor provides a final synthesis, suggesting how this approach may contribute to our understanding of the syndrome of depression. The resulting work is both ground-breaking and scholarly, and deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone seriously interested in the field of depression.

Lest this sounds excessively dry, I should say that I found the book absorbing. There is something peculiarly refreshing about approaching well-rehearsed symptoms, such as eating or sleeping difficulties, with a critical mind. The chapter on problems with memory and concentration will be of particular interest to psychologists. Personally, I found the chapter on suicide particularly absorbing, as it presented a fresh way of understanding the path to that final act. The author proposed a six-stage process, leading from major disappointment, through to increased self-awareness, to mental narrowing and its consequences. At each stage the person is offered a choice, and his decision moves him either further towards or away from self-destruction. I felt that this approach offered more of immediate relevance to the clinician than the psychodynamic or sociological theories normally discussed in relation to suicide. Overall, this book merits a place both in the departmental library, and on the individual shelves of any serious student of depression.

ANNE WARD