Abstract
MR. MERCIER addresses his little work directly to the ordinary medical student, for whom, it appears from the preface, there has hitherto been no text-book of insanity of moderate compass. For the practical student so clear and brief a description of the leading types of mental disorder from the pen of a recognised authority will be of high value. The work has also its merits from the stand point of the theoretical psychologist, though he will probably prefer to study the author's views in his larger work, “Psychology Normal and Morbid.” The account of normal mental activities by which the description of insane deviations from the normal is preceded is eminently clear and judicious. The psychologist should also be thankful to the author for discarding the bewildering nomenclature of manias and phobias, and offering a simple and intelligible classification of mental diseases, based on the distinction between forms of insanity (i.e. the aggregate symptoms presented simul taneously at any stage by a patient) and varieties of insanity (i.e. specific types of the course run by a case from first to last). Besides purely medical and psycho logical information, the book contains some useful re marks on the legal responsibilities of the practitioner in connection with insane patients.
A Text-book of Insanity.
By Charles Mercier. Pp. xiv + 222. (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 1902.) Price 6s. net.
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T., A. A Text-book of Insanity . Nature 66, 5 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/066005a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/066005a0