PSYCHIATRY IN AMERICAN LIFE

by Charles-Ed. Rolo ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 23, 1963

A collection based on a special supplement of the Atlantic Monthly surely bears out Auden's words on Freud as ""no more a person/Now but a whole climate of opinion"". Charles Rolo sets the keynote in his introduction on the Freudian revolution. The contributors then take up the relationship between the various therapies, the effect of analysis on American life, the psychoanalytical treatment process and role of the therapist, the new drugs; the Americanization of the unconscious, two variant views on the Freudian ethic, one seeing it is a positive, one as a negative force; the difficulties in relating to the unlovely psychotic; the intrusion of analysis in the contemporary novel, the relationship between illness and artistic creativity, the nature of the conflicts between psychiatry and religion. There is an annotated list of reading selected for the layman. The contributors are in the main medical men, observer-professional participants rather than big names whose thoughts have become a part of the psychoanalytic literature. The whole is a many sided often contradictory and not comprehensive view of the American psychiatric scene ad hoc, which is more for the involved layman and even professional than for the uninformed simply seeking information. The weather here is varied; the main value lies not in the imparting of information but in the earnest and competent presentation of differing outlooks.

Pub Date: July 23, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown-A.M.P.

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION