Book Review: The Treatment of Delirium Tremens and Related States

but clearly written and could be extremely useful to those teachers or educational psychologists who wish for an overview of this particular approach. The breakdown into hierarchies of educational tasks is an interesting device and one which allows for some progression from external rewards, interactional sequences and inner motivations, even though the order of the hierarchy could be argued. In another article the hazards implicit in the sacred cow of 'oneto-one' tutoring for emotionally disturbed children are adequately expounded, and the advantages of child-initiated sequential tutoring are clearly shown. The input from other fields of 'psychoeducation' is less clearly indicated, although Gaston Blom's general statement on "Psychoeducational Aspects of Classroom Management", and Jacobson and Faegre's informative paper on "Neutralization" provide some interesting notions. Given the emphasis on behaviour modification in the section on "Experimental Projects and Approaches", the provision of a separate section on "Behaviour Modification" seems excessive. However, the papers presented are adequate, with descriptions of various token reinforcement programs, systematic application of consequences and the general application of reinforcement principles. The paper by Quay et al. on "Remediation of the Conduct Problem Child in the Special Class Setting" is particularly good and is widely quoted in other articles throughout the book. There is also an interesting paper on "Attention Span", viewed from the operant conditioning paradigm which clarifies some of the confused thinking about this deceptively simple term. A small section deals with competencies and problems for teachers of disturbed children, and the article on alleviating "FirstYear Shock" intended for teachers is especially valuable. In the final section Bower discourses on "Primary Prevention of Mental and Emotional Disorders. " Thus, some idea of what the editor had in mind is revealed presumably this book formalizes a group of reading selections given to his students in special education. Accordingly, the articles are usually from journals of education, with contributions from Exceptional Children predominating. However the editor has attempted to give a broad coverage of the field and although the contributions from psychiatrists are relatively few the articles are adequate. Probably the proportion of 15 per cent fairly accurately represents psychiatric interest in this particular area, despite the fact that emotional disturbance in the classroom is both important and common. The book does not deal particularly with such aspects as perceptual and motor-muscular retraining nor with some of the more general aspects of cognitive remediation. Presumably the editor has focused especially upon articles concerned with emotionally disturbed children as such, but the reader tends to get a rather one-sided, if interesting, view of the complexities involved in the special education of emotionally disturbed children, since complex cognitive problems occur in such children with high frequency. The layout of the book is reasonably attractive and seems to be relatively free from production errors, but the price of $14.50 is excessive. This book would be useful to teachers, psychiatrists, psychologists and child care workers concerned with emotionally disturbed children. As with all compiled books the quality and nature of the contributions are uneven. Those psychiatrists who are particularly interested in this field will find much of value in the book but its general appeal is limited.