RECENT LITERATURE. 



The Mental Factor in Medicine.^ 



" Some bold quack by mere force of assertion will give her the 

 will to bear, or forget, or suppress all the turbulences of her nervous 

 system." Thus writes Sir James Paget of a clever, charming, widely 

 known lady and says : " What unsatisfactory cases these are ! '' ScHO- 

 FiELD undertakes to reclaim some of the successful and therefore legiti- 

 mate methods of the quack for the medical man and gives a rather en- 

 tertaining review of views of others, and many bright observations of 

 his own to show the absurdity and the harmfulness in the medical man 

 who leaves out mind in his " scientific " consideration of the patient. 



In principle, Dr. Schofield deserves credit for his effort. And 

 since he makes the book quite readable by a current epitome on the 

 margin and a brief summary at the end, we can heartily recommend it 

 to a glance of even hurried readers, as a book which expresses a widely 

 held standpoint in the efforts to cure the materialistic one-sidedness of 

 medicine. 



This stand-point is the assumption of unconscious mind as com- 

 pared to which the conscious mind is very limited and of little influ- 

 ence on the body. His expose shows many of the snares and fallacies 

 of this view so well that it is a great temptation to enter upon it critically. 



The author would strengthen the persuasive quality of his book by 

 not introducing the unconscious mind as long as it is really a bug-bear 

 to many thinkers, also among physicians. He can give all the strong 

 facts of his argument without this ballast, but he has probably done 

 well in giving it to us because its lack of convincing necessity is more 

 easily seen in his simple statement than in the armored constructions of 

 philosophers of profound dialectic training. 



Chapter H. attempts to prove that as the action of the mental fac- 

 tor in disease is unconscious, it canndt be recognized as mental by those 

 who limit mind to consciousness. The word "mind" must therefore be 

 extended to include all psychic action. 



* The Force of Mind, or the Mental Factor in Medicine. By Alfred T. 

 Schofield, M. D., M, R. C. S., &c. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 

 1902. Price $2. 



