Book Reviews

THE CRAZY FROM THE SANE. By Peter Breg­gin. Lyle Stuart Publishers, N.Y.C.

Th;s novel states on its jacket that it "stripsaway the sham that institutional psychiatry servesits patients." The inside flap contains ThomasSzasz's comment that "hospital psychiatry is dis­played here as it really is... what it does to psy­chiatrists."

In the book we learn of the experiences of athird year resident in psychiatry who spends oneday visiting the local State Hospital. His wife,without psychiatric training, wondered if he might"wait a while before making his visit"... and thepreceding nineteen chapters certainly indicatethat even a wife who is not perceptive (if sheexists) is well aware of her husband's increasinginability to cope with the daily problems of treat­ing patients who were emotionally ill. The au­thor's description of the hospital as a "rundownfeudal manor, a society gone to pot ... but at leastthere were no dungeons left, no torture chamberShidden beneath the splendid manor office... (But)Could he be sure of that ?"... These are surpris­ing statements, indeed, even when written as fic­tion, when the author is a psychiatrist who hascompleted his training, is in private practice andserves as a teacher and consultant.

There are some interesting excursions intopsychodynamics, the importance of ruling out or­ganic disease, the problems of transference andcountertransference, as well as the values, limita­tions and persistent old wive's tales about elec­troshock. The dangers of the doctor's becomingtoo involved with the patient (especially if oneis too vulnerable) are well brought out, so thatthe book should be of real value to those in psy­chiatric training who have not as yet learned to"know themselves" (italics are those of the re­viewer) whether through living or with the helpof analytic exposure. But the psychiatric residentdoes not usually have time for novels; the readerwill be the troubled person who is ambivalent aboutseeking help. Reassurance wilI not be forthcom­ing from this blOwn-up caricature of psychiatryand its problems. Unfortunately the troubledreader wilI not be in a position to separate factfrom fiction...Most psychiatrists, fortunately, canstill do so. W.D.

MARIHUANA RECONSIDERED. By LesterGrills])oon, M.D. Harvard University Press, 1971pp. H3.

When an Associate Professor of PsyChiatryfrom a prestigious university writes an "objec-

September~October1971

tive" study on the histcry, and properties anduse of marijuana, one cannot help but listen.Neither can one help but be implessed w:th hisdocumented debunking of the irrational and reac­tionary long-eme opponents of the hemp. Nor canone deny that what Lester Grinspoon is sayingabout Cannibas sativa is identical (albeit muchmore profound and "scientific") with what thereviewer is hearing from his own children - whomight end up as felons because they smoke thefruits of one plant rather than drinking those ofanother. But when the author betrays his own con­victions too soon and too often, to suggest thatperhaps he is not as "objective" as he claims, thereviewer is left with a doubt...even though he isinclined, by his own preconvictions, to agree.

Dr. Grinspoon has put together an immenseamount of data, in Marihuana Reconsidere4, tocome up with the opinions that POT is peacefUl,perhaps of positive value (e.g. as an antibiotic!),less dangerous by far than the demon rum andshould be legalized before our progeny throw outthe senior citizens with the proverbial bathwater.His arguments - written more for the laymanthan the physician - are most interesting but notcompelling, except the last one. Nursing his noc­turnal martini, the reviewer must muse on thepossibility that we are being unfair to demand ofthose, who will replace us all too soon, that theirhair be shorn and their grass be cut. Castrate untoothers as you yourself would be castrated....

But nonetheless! Who knows - truly - thatMary Jane is not habituating? That she does notlead the unwary wandered along the steppingstones to higher, and perhaps more destructivehedonistic pursuits? That she is not the edge ofthe wedge to blatant sexuality, wanton pleasure,productive paralysis, senseless sin and the down­fall of white, mother-loving American capitalism?

Lester Grinspoon, M.D., Associate Professor ofClinical Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School,knows! But the reviewer has a doubt. He muses.And he mixes. Five to one - now that's a goodMartini!

N. E. KRUPP, M.D.Consultant in PsychiatryMayo Clinic

DISEASES OF ATTENTION AND PERCEP­TION. By Monte Jay Meldman, M.D. New York:Pe1'gamon Press, 1970,

The author sets out to present a radically newconcept of mental and perceptual disorders, Thesedisorders are classified as diseases of attention,Experimental data are offered to demonstrate that

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