This is a good book. It just misses being a truly important one. Since there is less to criticize than there is to praise about the volume, let us begin with the critical. The first third—the preclinical part—of the book does not do what it ought. It does not provide a sound intercorrelated framework of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, autonomic physiology, and physiological psychology, a framework on which the remainder of the book could stand. This is all the more unfortunate since some of the very best individual chapters are in the first third of the book.
Although the book is called The Psychological Basis of Medical Practice, it is surprising how little of the science of psychology is in it. There is little child psychology, less physiological psychology, and almost no cognitive or genetic psychology. Yet all these disciplines constitute a large part of the psychological basis of medical practice.
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