Loving and Curing the Neurotic by Anna A. Terruwe, M. D., and Conrad W. Baars, M. D. (review)

~60 BOOK REVIEWS Though the history of the influence of this work still remains to be written, the student of medieval Arabian thought can be grateful to Dr. Goodman for the new English translation of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, together with its accompanying essays and notes. Marquette University Milwaukee, Wisconsin BEATRICE H. ZEDI,ER Loving and Curing the Neurotic. A New Look at Emotional Illness. By ANNA A. TERRUWE, M.D. and CoNRAD W. BAARs, M.D. New Rochelle, N. Y.: Arlington House, 1972. Pp. 495. $14.95. On the dust cover, this book is described as, "This breakthrough book is the product of years of rethinking the psychology and psychopathology of the normal man...." This leaves one somewhat confused because one does not expect " psychopathology " in the " normal " man. From this disappointing beginning the authors then attempt to introduce a new terminology for mental disorders, dealing almost exclusively with the neuroses and personality disorders. This might have been satisfactory if they had carefully defined their new terms. As it is, their definitions are poorly and incompletely stated. This reviewer found great difficulty in transposing these terms to a more modern nosology. The average student of today would have difficulty in following the text. On page 92 the authors state," However, neurasthenia is an illness which at present is generally considered to have a primarily somatic basis." To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, neurasthenia has never been considered to have a somatic basis, and the term is very rarely, if ever, used today. Another example of this confusing terminology (p. 98) speaks of " fear neuroses," which apparently applies to the more commonly used term, "anxiety." I will not spend more time on the terminology, but these examples point to the confusion today's student might have. Another problem which this reviewer has with the text is the absolutes given by the authors in regard to emotional or mental disorders. For example, (p. 109) they speak of "a personality which is completely different...." (italics mine) On the same page they speak of energy which " dominates exclu.~ively " and also of energy which is " always tempered." (p. 129) "Persons with a frustration neurosis . . . are absolutely incapable of establishing such contact." (p. 182) " Frustration neurotics ... never develop emotionally satisfying friendships." (p. 188) " Marriages in which one or both partners are frustration neurotics are BOOK REVIEWS 261 therefore always defective." On page flfl5 they state that a therapist must be absolutely emotionally mature. I am somewhat at a loss to understand the authors' description of "love and tenderness." For example, (p. flflO) "The fact that the frustration-neurotic patient has to grow emotionally demands, in many severe cases, that he must experience the feelings of love and tenderness which were denied him in infancy. This is particularly true for female patients and, in most cases, an absolute requirement for their successful treatment.... There has to be someone who, first ofall, really possesses motherly affection for the patient, and, secondly, is ready and willing to give expression to this feeling and to treat the patient more or less as a child." I find it hard to understand how a therapist "really possesses motherly affection." Further on in this section the authors state, "If a person caresses a girl solely for the purpose of helping her, without a feeling of love, as a therapeutic gesture, the intended effect will certainly not occur." I wonder what the authors mean by "caressing a girl." If they mean what they seem to mean, I would consider this unethical. At the bottom of page flfll the authors speak with some disapproval of psychotherapeutic sessions conducted in the nude. The author's further caution that it is necessary to have a therapist who really loves the patient may not be intended the way it sounds, but it seems to follow the previous admonition that the therapist should caress young girls. On page flfl4 they speak of neurotic girls who want to "drink from the therapist's breast." " Drink " is an unusual term for use in regard to the breast, but it is used consistently by the authors throughout the rest of the chapter. I wonder if such a practice is...