738 BOOK REVIEWS

rate the personalities ofa series ofblurred photographs The message of messianic hopes, striving after
of human faces. But Liggett does not produce enough ultimate truth, panic intensification, badness and
evidence for the reader to be able to evaluate whether goodness, difficulties in verbalization, are all well
or not this test can usefully be added to the already known group and individual phenomena. The group
overpopulated family ofsuch projective techniques. is seen by the author as an attempt at ‘¿furthering
the
C. R. BAGLEY. task-in-hand'. Surely this applies to non-therapeutic
groups even more. The author concludes that
RmRENcE groups emanate meaningful phenomena which need
Buuav, J. L. T. (ig68). ‘¿A further elucidation. Too true.
social psychiatrist's view of
medical care.' Lancet,ii, i 181—4. Before all this, the author gives excellent insight
into various group activities. He is inclined to preach
Marriage under Stress. By GERALDSANCTUARY. to the converted, his language is sometimes over-com
London: George Allen and Unwin Limited. plex, he sounds astounded at finding such things as
:968. Pp. 197. Price 355. preoccupation, and his interpretations are, eo ipso,
It is estimated that some eight per cent of marriages analytical.
in England and Wales end in divorce and that the I found the book heavy going and rebelled against
figure in the United States is nearer twenty per cent. some conclusions. The analyst will revel in it. The
Divorce is but one aspect of the complex picture of author describes what all group therapists had in
marital breakdown, and this book gives a comprehen mind; he puts it into words, his own words. The book
sive picture of the world-wide work of marriage is very good even if it might not be everybody's cup
counselling. It is a sombre picture of devoted effort of tea.
combating severe shortage of trained personnel, G. C. HELLER.
money and general facilities. It is also one that should
stir the consciences ofthe medical profession, particu PSYCHOTIC ART
larly of psychiatrists. It is clear that there will never Louis Waiji, The Man who drew Cats. By
be enough professionally trained specialists to under RODNEY D@'wa, with a section on the nature of
take the work of marital reconciliation, but their Louis Wain's illness by Dr. D. L. DAvixs.
expertise is needed urgently for basic research into London : William Kimber. Pp. xii + 204.
the causes of marital breakdown, and for the under Price 42S.
taking of an expanding programme of supervision
and training of suitable workers in the excellent To read about the man who drew cats is an inter
voluntary organizations that exist for this work. eating experience, because all we seem to need are
the pictures to look at. This means that in many ways
J. the author starts at a disadvantage. Of course facts
GROUP THERAPY about creative artists in any field are always intriguing.
We would like to find out what makes them tick and
Experiences in Groups and Other Papers. By to discover the secret of their originality. Every time
W. R. B:oN. London: Tavistock Publications. we fail, and back we go to the work, the real contni
Pp. :98. Price 155. bution of the man's life. When the author quotes, as
Bion is a self-confessed Kleinian. The great Melanie he does at length all over the book, from Wain's own
was breast-obsessed, but unfortunately most of our writings, it is so sad and pathetic that we want to
patients were bottle-fed. Also, the reviewer has always hurry back to the drawings. All that we learn from
had difficulties with oedipal concepts. the facts of his life is that he was mad, and in spite of
New definitions are introduced. The Work Group this left so much to love and be grateful for.
should experience only ‘¿friendly
feelings'. The group Even as a little boy he suffered from his abnormal
analyst is being manipulated. The group pairs off. condition, and this stayed with him all his life. Per
Messianic hopes result in fight-flight.
Basic group haps it was because ofit that he chose cats for constant
assumption includes the existence of a leader. The observation and exploration. A kitten entered his life
use of Christian names is a group proposal arising at the time of his wife's serious illness, and it was at
from the desire for flight in a fight-flight situation. first for her pleasure that he drew it again and again.
There is no need to postulate the existence of a herd Peter the cat stayed with him after his wife's death,
instinct. Analytic techniques are essential. and no doubt became a symbol and a reminder of
McDougall's attempt at raising group levels are happier days. True it is that his portraits of the cat's
compared with Freud's assumption that the group face are almost Rembrandtesque in their exploration.
intensifies individual emotions. Where is the quarrel? He tries to tell us about the cat's mind behind the

https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.115.523.738-b Published online by Cambridge University Press

 BOOK REVIEWS 739
face, as Rembrandt penetrates behind the human mind, but ofsuch innocence that he fell a defenceless
face. Bjit Louis Wain's subjects defeated him, for in victim to a ruthless and capable adventuress. This
the end behind the cat faces he drew is something lady, for long known in spiritualist circles as Miss
unknowable. x, wassentbytheSociety
forPsychical
Research
His sketches of cats in group activities, like the to the Highlands to study ‘¿second
sight'; she met
Christmas party, are utterly delightful. Every small Fr. McDonald, and fixed herselfupon him. He made
cat and kitten should be looked at, to see what it is freely available to her his notebooks of strange local
up to. The author is an admirer and collector of stories and belith; and he never knew how far she
Wain's art; and though he must have had mixed went in exploiting his work and claiming for herself
feelings in recounting the tragic facts of the artist's the credit. She did in fact gain a reputation in
life, it was pains well spent. When we remember learned circles which she enjoyed till she died at the
growing up, we remember the drawings which have age of 72, twenty-six years after the death in obscurity
charmed us; and the new generations who read this ofher master, benefactor and dupe.
book may learn to love them too. Strange Things is the record of an enquiry that
Dr. Davies has given us an adequate account demanded two entirely different kinds of scholar
of Wain's schizophrenic illness. The appendices of ship, and it unfolds a story which had to be built up
Wain's writings are embarrassing in their tortured by detective work on two fronts. Dr. Campbell dis
silliness. We are shown cats from the Maclay Gutt covered the work done by McDonald, and succeeded
mann collection. Starting with a cat portrait almost eventually in tracking down four of his six notebooks;
sentimental in conception, the face develops into in the last eighty pages of the book he shows the
surface decoration and changes to pattern upon calibre of the man by providing a substantial selection
intricate pattern, which at the end is submerged in of the stories of ghosts and ‘¿second
sight' which he
intricacy without meaning, as we feelthe artist had collected from the islanders. Dr. Campbell has
himself has been submerged. We have to thank also recovered from limbo and has published before
Louis Wain for his life's work and pity him for his now a Gaelic vocabulary and a volume of poems in
terrible mental state at the end. Gaelic, also by McDonald. In the course of his
The book is handsomely produced, profusely searches he came upon evidence of the fraudulence
illustrated and well indexed.
J. F.
THE OCCULT
Strange Things. The Enquiry by the Society for CYBERNETICs
Psychical Research into Second Sight in the J. F. YOUNG, C.G.I.A., M.LE.E., M.I.E.R.E.,
Scottish Highlands, the Story of Ada Goodrich Lecturer In Electronics, University of Aston
Freer, the BaIlCChin House ghost hunt, and the
stories and folklore collected by Fr. Allan A book of particular value to all those interested in
McDonald of Eriskay. By JOHN L. CAMPBELL cybernetics, including doctors, psychologists,
and TREVORH. HALL. London : Routledge and engineers, chemists and physicists. It covers all
aspects of this wIde ranging subject Impartially
Kegan Paul. :968. Pp. xvi + 350. Price 555. and reviews the vast amount of recent work while
The folklore enshrined in an age-old oral and un also considering present controversies and future
possibilities.The structureand behaviourof animal
written tradition, protected by an ancient and and human central nervous control systems are
almost obsolete language, confined to a remote and described In considerable detail, and there is an
isolated people, is a subject of research which must extensivereview of the variousattemptswhIch have
be both interesting and important. The continued been made to simulate such control systems with
existence of such a culture into the twentieth century man-made machines.
is like the survival of a living fossil. Only a scholarly 136 pages 8 IllustratIons
man, and one native to the language and the people, 37s. Sd. net case 395. by post
could hope to study it at first hand; but for him it 21s. net student edition 22s. 3d. by post
could be a challenge to high endeavour. Fr. Allan
McDonald was an ascetic Catholic priest who
devoted his short life to this work, in such free inter
vals as he could get, from :884, when he was sent ILIFFE BOOKS LTD
to a parish in the Western Isles, until his death in 42 RUSSELL SQUARE, LONDON, WCI
1905. He was a man of saintly character and noble

https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.115.523.738-b Published online by Cambridge University Press