of a young girl from a straight and supportive ... young people have been seriously hurt by their use of illicit ... Reviewed by Andrew Malcolm, MD. Dr. Malcolm is ...
Go Ask Alice is the published diary of a young girl from a straight and supportive home. This girl is introduced to marijuana and subsequently to every other illusionogenic drug. In the course of the next year her descent to anguished depravity is vividly described. A few weeks after the last entry the girl is said to have died from an overdose of drugs. Now the description of this girl's agony is not the only aspect of this book that is disturbing. The diary, it is admitted by the editors, has been slightly modified. I think so. In fact the diary often seems to be entirely fabricated so as to touch on virtually every one of the most deplorable circumstances that such a person might find herself in. The entries seem too often to be contrived and unlikely. It might have been far more acceptable if the diary, had been presented as a piece of fiction because the situations it describes are all known to occur and there is no doubt that a great many young people have been seriously hurt by their use of illicit drugs. The editors' insistence that the diary is completely authentic diminishes, to a Reviewed by I. W. Bean, MD (Dr. considerable extent, the force of the Bean, a family physician practicing important message it contains. in Regina, Sask., is a student of politics while remaining largely unim- Reviewed by Andrew Malcolm, MD. Dr. Malcolm is the author of The pressed with its practitioners). Pursuit of Intoxication and several articles on drug abuse.
I n discussing costs of health services, he states that both Ottawa and Washington have foisted 'a cruel and expensive hoax on the public'. However, he then proceeds to indulge in the favorite pastime of politicians today - quoting physicians' gross incomes, which are really not very significant. In a -chapter on Health Maintenance and Preventive Medicine, the author admits that the individual does have some responsibility in maintaining his own health. He is also critical of the quacks and occult healers. One cannot help but notice his omission of chiropractors, osteopaths and naturopaths in this section. In his final paragraphs, Grafftey states that lack of public concern and interest is largely responsible for the present medical mess. He feels that we have confused our priorities. But one wonders if perhaps this criticism could not be levelled at almost all of the institutions in our democratic society which is dependent upon an informed electorate before intelligent decisions can be made.
'Diary' Would Be Better Written As Work of Fiction
Intriguing Bias In Psychiatry Book
Title: Physical Methods of Treatment Title: Go Ask Alice in Psychiatry, 5th edition. Author: Anonymous William Sargant and Eliot Authors: 1870 Inc., Publisher: Prentice-Hall Slater. Birchmount Ave., Scarborough, Publisher: Longman Canada Ltd., 55 Ont. Barber Greene Rd., Don Mills, Price: $5.50 Ont. Pages: 159 Price: $10.75 This is a remarkably powerful book. I Pages: 318
deserves its reputation as a clear, concise presentation of the physical modalities of treatment in psychiatry. The authors' bias is in favor of the constitutional approach to mental illness: "We may be sure that at the present time we are calling neurotic, and struggling to treat by psychotherapy, a range of illnesses with physical components, whose nature is unrecognized and whose appropriate treatment is unguessed." These arguments are based on many years of careful observation of psychiatric patients in a hospital setting. Unfortunately their data do not describe their patient population and it is difficult to draw conclusions about the applicability of their findings to the ambulatory patients seen by the family doctor. Indeed many of the patients with emotional difficulties seen by family physicians can best be conceptualized as having problems of living rather than medical illnesses. To help these patients we need more knowledge of the behavioral sciences to complement our knowledge of the biological sciences. The authors' discussion of anxiety and depression and the selection of patients for the appropriate tranquillizer or antidepressant is intriguing and certainly strongly at variance with North American teaching. Their suggestions merit careful study. The family doctor will also find the chapters on diet, drug treatment in childhood, treatment of epilepsy and alcoholism useful; other sections on ECT, prefrontal leukotomy and insulin therapy are mainly of academic interest. When family medicine finally comes of age we will have textbooks written by family physicians assisted by specialists in the various related behavioral and biological sciences. Until then, this book provides a sensible, well-written account of the biological viewpoint.
Reviewed by W. W. Weston, MD. Dr. have no doubt that anyone reading it Weston is in group family practice in world-rethis of edition would be strongly affected by the The fifth Ont. Tavistock, 1944, in published first text, knowned reveals. tragic sequence of events it
CANADIAN FAMILY PHYSICIAN/JUNE, 1972
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