Emotions and Emotional Disorders (review)

the origins and principles ofdemocracy and the importance offree and rigorous competition in its function. Their generalization that mental capacity tends to be adequate among peoples and races adjusted to cold and temperate climates but inadequate among those adjusted to hot climates b much less convincing than their appeal that education be structured to facilitate the growdi ofthe creative minority. DwightJ. Ingle University ofChicago Emotions and Emotional Disorders. By Ernst Gellhorn and G. N. Loofbourrow. New York: Hoeber Medical Divbion, Harper & Row, 1963. Pp. xü+496. $12.00. Thb book will be important to students as well as psychologists, neurophysiologbts, clinical neurologbts, and psychiatrists and to any biologist or physician interested in the physiological basb ofemotion. The first part ofthe book deals with the physiological basb and integrative mechanisms ofemotion, then hypothalamic tests, the physiological approachtopsychologicalphenomena, theexperimentalapproachtotheproblemofemotional disorders, the neurological and emotional basis of some somatic disorders, die autonomic nervous system in mental dborders, and finally theories ofemotion and suggested research. Throughout the book the authors emphasize that feeling and acting are but different aspects ofthe same complex ofprocesses whichcomprisestheindividual.Theauthorsemphasize similarities between the effect ofactivation ofthe hypothalamus and the reticular formation, believing that the former b concerned with the largerexcitatory and inhibitory systems as well as regulation ofautonomic functions. Although the authors have not limited their review ofthe physical bases ofemotion to undisputed data and theory, thb b a lucid, scholarly book in,which the senior author can take special pride as hb "final account" ofa lifetime offruitful research on the nervous system and emotions. DwightJ. Inglb University ofChicago ThePhysical Foundations ofthe Psyche. By Charles M. FAm. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1963. Pp. xii -f- 287. $10.00. In thb book Mr. Fair attempts to account for the organization of behavior in terms of the findings ofmodern neurophysiology. That thb attempt must bejudged a failure b as much a testimonial to the difficulty ofthe subject matter as it b to the unorthodox approach adopted by the author. The book b divided into two parts. In the first, Fair outlines what he considers to be diebasic principles underlyingthe functioning of thebrain. Hbtreatment of "neocortical memory- and data-processingfunctions" bcharacteristic ofhbapproach. First,allmemory functions are asserted to belong to one oftwo broad categories—"typt" memories responsible for crude generic recognition, and "thing" memories leading to relatively pre371 ...