| Abstract: | Reviews the book, Psychology in Relation to Medicine (Second edition) by R. M. Mowbray and T. Ferguson Rodger. Until the relationships between psychology and medicine become less ambiguous than they are at present, books such as this are both difficult to write and difficult to review. The relationships between these two professions may be viewed in many ways, but there are two broad views prevalent. The first view sees psychology as one of the basic sciences of medicine--a basic science that is particularly relevant in the training of psychiatrists. The other view sees psychology as a discipline that runs parallel to medicine. If one were to accept the first of these views, then presumably the medical student would be required to obtain a thorough grounding in psychology. If one takes the second view of the relationship between psychology and medicine, then the medical student requires probably only one course which will give him some familiarity with the work one of his close professional colleagues will be doing. The reviewer suggests that satisfactory books for medical students will only be written and can only be written when the relationships between psychology and medicine are more precisely delineated. Whatever these relationships may be, it is likely that the books written for medicine and accepted by the medical profession for their students will be more meaty than this one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
