Enlivened by literary anecdotes, but less appealing as social history.
Shorter (Psychiatry and History of Medicine/Toronto Univ.; co-author: Endocrine Psychiatry, 2010, etc.) charges that current diagnoses of mood disorders are fatally flawed and becoming “close to unintelligible.”
The author attributes this to political infighting within the discipline of psychiatry, compounded by the marketing strategies of the pharmaceutical industry. He argues that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders represents a step backward from the pre-Freudian diagnosis of depression as a medical disorder of the nerves and which was treated under the rubric of internal medicine. Past practice was closer to the truth than what is presented in the DSM, which lumps together mood disturbances with severe depression (a debilitating disorder). In the annals of modern science,” he writes, “I am unaware of any comparable wholesale demolition of a field of scientific knowledge and its replacement with a fairy castle of fantasies…the spotlight shifted from nerves, a diagnosis that implicated the whole body, to mood, a diagnosis that implicated mainly the mind.” Compounding the problem is the current practice of treating anxiety and panic attacks as disorders separate from depression. Shorter suggests that a combination of barbiturates and amphetamines was a superior treatment than today's pharmacopoeia, which relies on Prozac and similar antidepressants. The release of DSM5 (the latest revision of the manual) has been the occasion for a critical review of current treatment practices, but Shorter's contribution to that discussion, while timely, is questionable.
Enlivened by literary anecdotes, but less appealing as social history.Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-19-994808-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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