608 BOOK REVIEWS

The final speculative chapter on aphrodisiacs of the future is inconclusive and thinly argued. The Appendices are curious; a vast list of all substances ever used as aphrodisiacs with no reference made to this text or any other, and a table depicting the main divisions of the nervous system, with no reference to sexual function.

The book is expensive but nicely presented; the choice of a picture of Aphrodite being chased by Fan as half-goat has unfortunate bestial overtones. Recommended for those establishing a general reference library or having many patients who lack confidence in a behavioural approach!

PATRICIA D’ARDENNE

J. C~WXXX Excessive Appetites: a PsychologicaE View of Addictions. Wiley, Chichester, Sussex (f 985). Pages ix f 367. Ef 9.50.

This book presents a fascinating survey and analysis of the quite disparate literature on a selection of so-called ‘addictive” behaviours. It emphasizes the many tetminological and p~losophi~l controversies surrounding discussion of each, and then details an explanatory model within the genera1 framework of social learning theory.

Whilst the first five chapters are descriptive, providing lucid overviews of each of the selected clinical problems (alcoholism, drug dependence, gambling obesity and hypersexuality), which serve as an interesting introduction for both layman and professional, the theoretical discussion in subsequent chapters is scholarly in approach and often assumes at least a basic familiarity with psychological and statistical concepts, The book is however of more than purely academic interest since, without purporting to be a therapist manual, it carries many implications for structuring therapeutic involvement.

Orford makes a persuasive case that, despite very conspicuous differences between the above-mentioned conditions (e.g. in terms of their physical s~pto~tolo~) there are more fundamental similarities between them which render it profitable to consider them as examples of a functional grouping, defined as ‘excessive appetitive behaviours’. IF Part 1 he supports his argument by drawing parallels between these five problem behaviours in terms of their clinical presentations, the theoretical issues they raise, and the complexity of the social responses they engender. In so doing, he draws on a wide variety of sources, including autobiographical accounts, historical and anthropological surveys, epidemiological studies and attempts at developing ciinical diagnostic instruments and taxonomies. These chapters are written in a narrative style which makes their content easily digestible and provides a sweating basis for proce&ing to the more speculative part of the volume.

Similarities between the behaviours, at the levels both of theory and of empirical research, continue to emerge in Part 2, where they serve to substantiate the model which is gradually elaborated. The emphases of successive chapters in this section are on different aspects of the mode1 and its implications; however, they are closely inter-related, and the divisions are fairly arbitrary.

Orford categorically rejects both the disease and morality-based views of addictive behaviour as sutficient explanations, but discusses the ad~nta~ous consequences as weli as the ~o~~o~~gS of each. In their place he proposes an analysis in which the cultural and individual relativity of ‘excessiveness’ is stressed, and to which the principles of social learning theory and demon-making theory are central. The essence of his argument is that the development of 'excessive' behaviottrs is continuous with that of ‘normal‘ behaviottr, governed by the same fundamental processes. Cognitive processes am integral to the model, and indeed the notion of conscious internal conflict is crucial in Orford’s definition of ‘addiction’.

The final two chapters are concerned with the processes through which normality is restored, and with the role of external influences. Although discussion of clinical interventions is included here, I was rather disappointed that the treatmenl implications of the mode1 were not set out more explicitly in a separate section. Both this, and a brief consideration of other strategies for evaluating the model, would I feel have been merited, espe&lly in view of the clarity with which it is formulated and the constructiveness of its approach to clinical problems which are often regarded with pessimism.

There is no question in my mind that this book deserves to be widely read and taken seriously both by clinicians and by those with a more purely theoretical interest.

JANE POWELL

A. 8, %tt?t~t+ (Rd.): International Ratiew of Mental imagery, Vol. 1. Human Sciences Press, New YorkjEurospan, London (1985). Pages xiv + 220. f35.00.

This is the first volume of a new series on mental imagery. The emer~n~, or-to be more accurate-reemergence, of imagery as a major area of psycholo~~l enquiry in the last 15 years or so is truly remarkable. There has been a good deal of extremely interesting experimental work, and more and more clinicians have been paying attention to imagery as a clinically relevant variable. With this rapid upsurge in interest, and the resulting growth of serious investigations, it was perhaps entirely predictable that a regular series reviewing the field would be launched.

This volume has eight chapters which are contributed by authors from five different countries and which cover a wide and diverse range of subjects. These are on: imagery in children’s learning; imagery in problem-solving; bizarreness effects in mental imagery; time estimation, imagination and hypnosis; imagery and psychosomatic illness; day-dreaming in adolescents; hypnagogic imagery; and right hemispheric processing of emotional and imageable words. Many of these chapters are reviews of their respective tieids. The two exceptions report new research by their authors.