Year: 2009
Type: book-review
Abstract: This is primarily a reference book and should be in the library of every physician who is interested in psychosomatic medicine.The book is divided into four parts: 1. Orientation and Methodology; 2. Organs and Organ Systems; 3. Therapeutic Considerations and Concluding Remarks; and 4. Bibliography of more than 5,000 references.Each of the seventeen chapters of this book is divided into two sections: (a) one dealing with selected aspects of the literature of psychosomatic medicine up to 1935; and (b) one dealing with the literature published from 1935 to 1953.Taken as a whole, this volume represents an enormous amount of creative think ing and labor on the part of the author, who assembled in logical fashion her selections of the literature of psychosomatic medicine.Her presentation shows both the strength and the weakness of the work in this field.As in all fields of medicine, there is a primary problem for investigators in psycho somatic medicine: that of obtaining valid data and making objective and reproducible measurements of psychosomatic phenomena.In addition, there is the problem of evalu ating circumstantial evidence, differentiating between fact and the individual's inter pretation of fact, obtaining controls, reproducing observations, prognosticating future psychosomatic reactions, and understanding the psychosomaticist's logical errors, in cluding that of post hoc, ergo propter hoc reasoning.Despite these handicaps, the author docs indicate the importance of the psychosomatic viewpoint as amply supported by the recognition of both the underlying mechanisms and the outward manifestations of bodily changes caused by emotions, as well as their therapeutic correction.An allergist might find much in this book to interest, irritate and stimulate him.He may especially want to read such topics as the psychosomatic aspects of asthma, hives, hay fever, respiration, acute and chronic illness, skin disorders, etc., and will perhaps become eager to make his own contributions to psychosomatic medicine.W. Kaufman, Bridgeport, Conn.M. C. Wohl and R. S. Goodhart (editors): Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease.Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1955.1062 pages.$18.50.This is an excellent multi-authored book on modern nutrition in health, disease and under conditions of physiological stress.Every physician could benefit from study ing this volume.Fifty-five contributors have prepared the thirty-seven chapters.Chapter headings include Psychology of Appetite; Physiology of Hunger, Appetite and Satiety; Fluid and Electrolyte Balance; Laboratory Aids in the Diagnosis of Malnutrition; Nutrition in Relations to Infection and Immunity; Nutrition in Pregnancy; Emergency Feedings, etc.
DOI: 10.1159/000228308
Authors: E. Weigelin, Karl Hansen, J. Lecomte, Alfred L. Weiner, Claudia Rene Simon
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4210561145