BOOK REVIEWS 701

J. E. BIRREN and J. LIVINGSTON (Eds): Cognition, Stress and Aging. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J. (1985). Pages xii + 212. f36.85.

In this book, “several issues related to age and health are examined with particular emphasis on patterns of cognitive understanding, learned behavior patterns, emotional attitudes, and psychosocial factors affecting health in the aging process”. Psychologically-oriented chapters include topics such as concepts of health and ageing, a holistic health model (the Mosaic Model), perceived control and helplessness and optimism and mental health. More psychobiological chapters cover psychosocial factors in disease and ageing and the relationship of endorphins and cognitive control to health. Two interesting chapters on death are entitled ‘Affectional Bonding and the Elderly Bereaved’ and ‘Voodoo Death in the American Aged’.

Each chapter gives a literature review and overview of the topic, and so the book is of potential value to anyone who is interested in pursuing its various topics with special reference to the elderly.

FRANCES CLEGG

G. WILSON: The Psychology of the Performing Arts. Croom Helm, London (1985). 180 Pages. f14.95.

There is a need for a book describing psychological aspects of stage performance for the general reader. Unfortunately it is not fulfilled by the present volume. It is disappointing that in a field where speculation is at last giving way to systematic research, this book should endorse the old approach. The author has overlooked much of the literature, and many sections of the text are derivative; the chapter concerning performance anxiety and its management is particularly ill-informed. Altogether, the book cannot be recommended either to psychologists or to stage performers and audiences.

ANDREW STEPTOE

D. A. OAKLEY (Ed.): Brain and Mind. Methuen, London (1985). Pages xvi + 265. E15.95 (Hardback); f6.95 (Paperback).

This volume is a coherently organized compilation of diverse theoretical perspectives on current conceptions of consciousness and the relationship between brain and mind.

Each contribution is made by a specialist in his/her field, and focuses on different but inter-related aspects of the literature. Thus, Jerison gives a concise explication of brain evolution, and speculates on implications for comparisons of information processing in different species; Oatley reviews the concept of mental schemata and discusses these in relation to cultural and developmental factors. A neuro-anatomical model which attempts to account for varied attributes of conscious experience is detailed by O’Keefe, whilst at a more molar level, Oakley addresses the question of continuity in cognition between different species, drawing on experimental and ethological evidence. Human psychopathology is considered in a neuropsychological analysis of consciousness by Newcombe, and also by LeDoux, who presents data from split-brain studies in speculating about the impact of language on the perception of ‘reality’.

The conceptual ambiguities of the field are reflected in slight divergences in the terminology used by individual authors. However, more salient is the unifying consensus on the central role of representational systems in subjective experience. The closing chapter by Eames and Oatley elaborates this theme in the presentation of a theoretical framework for integrating a wide range of data.

This book will hold appeal for readers at all levels of sophistication, since it provides a good general overview whilst giving a sufficiently broad coverage of recent developments that most will encounter something new.

JANE POWELL

M. MCRAE: A Sfate of Depression. Macmillan, London (1986). Pages xiv + 258.

A Stare of Depression is the latest contribution to the growing literature of personal accounts of what it is like to suffer and recover from this common and painful condition. The author, then working as a health visitor, became depressed following a hysterectomy at the age of 26. After several months of increasing distress, she found her way to private psychodynamic psychotherapy on the recommendation of a friend. The book gives a detailed, chronological account of the events leading up to and comprising her 18 months of treatment.

Different readers are likely to find different points of interest in her account of her illness and therapy. The reviewer especially appreciated her candid description of her initial ambivalence about and resistance to therapy, her depiction of the development of the transference, and her emphasis throughout on the importance of self-help and lay sources of support. Others may focus on the description of anxiety and depressive phenomena, the nightmares, ‘night fits’, wildly fluctuating moods and behaviour, or the conflict between personal development and adherence to childhood religious indoctrination. The technical aspects of therapy, as seen from the receiving end, will also appeal to some.