Clinical Currants: Sweet and Wrinkled

Abstract

Clinical Currants: Sweet and Wrinkled Current Issues in Clinical Psychology, Volumes 1 & 2. Eric Karas (Ed.). New York and London: Plenum Press, 1983 (301pp.) and 1985 (370 pp v In reviewing two large volumes of papers one is at a loss to know how to begin; the first thing to establish is the audience at which the authors are aiming. These papers are, on the whole, directed at recently qualified clinical psychology graduates, and were presented at the Merseyside annual refresher course in clinical psychology. Therefore a number of the papers provide a good overview of a particular area of interest, though having said that, Volume one refers to pre-1981 work and Volume two to pre-1984 work. I should note here my dissatisfaction with the typeface used, it looks as though it has been typed, though clearly it has been typeset. Why bother? Why not just bind the manuscripts? These two volumes are certainly at the tail end of a mercifully short trend in publishing; suffice to say that it makes reading them not nearly as enjoyable as a good quality typeface. Incidentally it also makes errors leap out of the page! As usual with a collection of papers the good, the bad, and the ugly are all represented here. The style of most of the papers is perhaps more readable than is usual, reflecting, I suppose, the fact that they were originally intended for oral presentation. Having mentioned the sort of audience, and the overall style, I shall now turn to the actual content of the two volumes. CONTENT The format consists of broad symposia-type headings with an introductory paper to begin each one; these were uniformly good, and in some cases, as they succinctly summarized the following papers, they almost negated the need to read the following papers. A list of the headings follows: Volume 1: Post Qualification Training, Legal and Forensic Issues in Psychology, Anorexia Nervosa (Counseling and self-help groups), Computer Applications and Biofeedback in Clinical Psychology, Internal Events and Processes with particular reference to Depression, and Long-Term Care. Volume 2: Psychological Contributions to Problems of Chronic Pain, Mental Handicap (The Feasibility of Normalisation), Approaches to Anxiety Based Problems, Psychological Approaches to problems of aggression and violence, and Issues in Community Psychology. As each of these sections has on average six papers contained in it I shall not mention them individually except for the high and low points within each volume. The keynote paper for Volume 1, is in some ways the first article by Jones, which is remarkable both for its timeliness and lucidity and astonishing for the lack of mention of any clientele; to read it one might imagine that post qualification courses for clinical psychologists were conducted in a vacuum, with a disinterest bordering on apathy about if or when or how these (needed ?) new skills and insights were to be applied and to whom. In the legal and forensic section, the introductory paper by Owens pointed out a lot of the holes in a subsequent paper of Eysencks'; I found this both refreshing and necessary; an undergraduate or non-psychologist might actually believe what Eysenck says because he says it, rather than look at the evidence as Owens does. This section also contained a rather odd, some might say objectionable, article by West about sexual crime. The following is a quote to give you its flavor: [rape] . . . does not usually have quite the horrific connotations commonly attributed to i t . . . physical injury requiring medical treatment occurred to less than 6 per cent of the victims . . . about half the offenders were acquaintances or friends of the victim, and the unwanted sex act, which often took place in the home of the victim or offender, was usually preceded by some kind of social interaction. (So that's ok then.) It is difficult to know what to make of such a naive approach, which certainly appears to ignore the psychological trauma typically suffered as a consequence of even minor assault, let alone rape. …