Schizophrenia and the Poor.

Abstract

publication of the lectures in 1955. The reader is brought up to that moment by a discussion of the by now well-known Durham case (United States Court of Appeals for the District of Colum¬ bia, 1954, with Judge Bazelon presiding). There then follows a chapter of illustra¬ tive cases showing the wide gap between law and psychiatry. A bibliography and ample notes are available in this as in the original volume. While this slim volume may be of interest as an historical overview from a great height (where important details are missing and therefore mar its meticulousness), it ob¬ viously cannot help but suffer from the im¬ mediacy of the past 12 years, during which the dialogue between psychiatry and law has taken some important strides forward. As an example one may cite a recent deci¬ sion by Justice Arthur Whittenmore of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, who ruled that the American Law Institute's model penal code should be substituted for the M'Naghten rule. The model penal code states that a person who can tell right from wrong is not neces¬ sarily sane if he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality and wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. JACK WEINBERG, MD