L'ANORESSIA MENTALE

This book should be increasingly possible and appropriate for every adoption agency to have the consultative help of a child psychiatrist, both for the individual case and for program development, and this book's being "must" reading for anyone engaged in or training for the practice of child psychiatry.

Abstract

study, but all too often it makes the literature of social science, and I am including psychiatry in this field for the moment, seem to consist mostly of gossipy little stories, highly individual, with little to be pulled out in the form of basic principles. We in psychiatry are accustomed to have the literature of our field criticized by physicians from other medical and surgical specialties. These critics insist that what happens in one case may not be what happens in others and that individual cases have less than worth-while predictive value. These comments apply to this book too, but there are some significant exceptions. The paper by Joseph H. Reid on Principles, Values and Assumptions Underlying Adoption Practice would stand out in any volume. It does not fall back on chatty anecdotes to present a difficult subject but develops its concepts in a logical, yet easily readable and easily remembered way. In view of the expected development of comprehensive community mental health centers with many related services working in close collaboration perhaps for the first time, it should be increasingly possible and appropriate for every adoption agency to have the consultative help of a child psychiatrist, both for the individual case and for program development. Such a trend would warrant this book's being must reading for anyone engaged in or training for the practice of child psychiatry.