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In this textbook of psychiatry, Dr. Baruk, who is best known here for his monograph on mental symptoms associated with brain tumors and his investigation of bulbocapnine experimental catatonia in animals, presents a summary of 25 years' clinical experience. The point of view is that of "synthetic psychiatry," with discussions of all that is known about the human personality from the biologic, clinical, psychologic, social, and moral aspects. Mental ailments are described not as clinical entities but as psychologic and biologic reactions to varied physical and "moral" stresses. It is a complete work except for the omission of psychiatric problems of childhood. This book would have been impossible without the cooperation of many of the author's students, who contributed much while working on their dissertations.
The author considers psychosomatic medicine, as the term is used in this country, a misnomer and believes it should be called psychogenic or psychoanalytic psychiatry,