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With the changing medical school curriculum, the teaching of behavioral science has become a more integral part of the "preclinical" years. This book, in its third edition and written by a psychologist from the University of Melbourne and a psychiatrist from the University of Glasgow, offers a possible text or at the least collateral reading for such a course. Amazingly, there are few, if any, available books which adequately introduce the first or second year medical students to the behavioral sciences. Although this work is weak in certain areas, it should certainly be seriously considered by all who are involved in this field.
The book covers most subjects relevant to medical psychology, including instincts, emotions, thinking, learning, remembering and forgetting, perceiving, intelligence, mental development, mind and brain, and personality development. The authors' approach or "school" is that of Adolph Meyer's psychobiology, which limits but does not excessively prejudice their viewpoint.