ENDOCRINOLOGY WITHOUT PICTURES

reactions that followed. The poor results reported with the conditioned aversion treatment were also probably due to the fact that the method was not used primarily as a means of indoctrinating and brain-washing the patient to a greater realization of the dangers of relapse whenever the first drink is again taken. The book confirms what has been known for a long time -namely, that ordinary forms of psychotherapy and psychoanalytically orientated treatments work very poorly indeed in alcoholism. The only hopeful treatment seems to be to produce total abstinence by " fair means or foul." It does not seem to matter much whether this happens following sudden conversion at a revival meeting, or by attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, or by the regular taking of antabuse, or by using the increased suggestibility that occurs both during conditioned aversion treatment and hypnotherapy to drive home the absolute necessity for total future abstinence. Any treatment which permits a return to moderate drinking is practically always doomed to failure, and that is why the statistics of this study may not be indicative of the full possibilities of the same treatments in other hands. WILLIAM SARGANT.