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BOOK REVIEWS 445very much a phenomenon of the age . . .
con-demned . . . like flower-power-to wilt whenthe good vibes faded
away (pp. 9-10), cer-tain recent intellectual developments (such
asthe rediscovery by the left of the subjective,and the rise of a
radicalized Freudian psycho-analysis) make a cogent critique of
psychiatrymuch more feasible today than in the past.This may be the
case; however, I was uncon-vinced by this volume. While the
cross-national nature of the collection greatly addsto its
interest, I found many of the essays tobe excessively ideological
and insufficientlygrounded in the examination of the
actualtreatment practices of either orthodox orradical mental
health workers. The volumedoes not address psychiatric practice in
non-capitalistic societies. However, the well-documented political
misuse of psychiatry inthe Soviet Union clearly indicates that
themedicalization of deviance and social controlis not limited to
capitalistic countries, per se,but, as Conrad suggests, instead may
berooted in the development of modern tech-nological societies (p.
118). To suggest, asIngleby does, that if psychiatric abuses
existin communist nations, it reflects more theembryonic state of
socialism in the countriesconcerned than the innocuousness
ofcapitalism (p. 14) is simply not a credibleresponse.Ideological
excesses aside, several of theessays in Critical Psychiatry should
be ofinterest to sociologists concerned with the in-tersection of
politics and mental health.Turkle's essay on French
antipsychiatry,sparked by the May 1968 student revolt andhighly
influenced by the radical psychoanaly-tic theories of Jacques
Lucan, is particularlyinteresting. Psychiatrist Franco Bassaglia'
saccount of the seven-year process of closing aprovisional mental
hospital in northern Italyand initiating a community care program
forits deinstitutionalized patients is also quitefascinating as an
example of traditional com-munity mental health practice
reinterpretedthrough the conceptual prism of Marxism. Awarning: the
volume's contributors generallyassume their readers to be highly
knowledge-able regarding current controversies in Euro-pean
psychoanalytic, intellectual, and politicalthought, and little
general background onthese issues is provided. This is not a book
forbeginners, and I would not recommend its useas a supplementary
reader in a sociology ofmental illness course, even at the
graduatelevel.
Catharsis in Healing, Ritual, and Drama, byT. J. SCHEFF.
Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1979. 246 pp. $12.95
cloth.$3.95 paper.CECILIA E. DAWKINSUniversity of Illinois at the
Medical Center,Chicago
The purpose of Catharsis in Healing, Ritual,and Drama is: (1) to
provide a theory ofcatharsis, (2) to demonstrate its
applicabilityto psychotherapy, ritual, and drama; and (3)to present
Scheffs research on the relation-ship between humor and tension.
Its eightchapters are divided into three sections:theory,
application, and research.The theory section's four chapters
consti-tute almost half the book. Scheff provides aliterature
review of sociological theorists'treatment of emotions and
catharsis. Hispremise is that emotions such as crying
areinstinctual, biological necessities and that atheory of
catharsis has not been adequatelydefined, tested, or researched.
After providingan historical account of the original
cathartictheory of Sigmund Freud and Joseph Breuer,Scheff presents
his own theory.According to Scheff, the process of emo-tional
discharge to resolve emotional tensionis central to the theory of
catharsis. He usesthe therapeutic technique of
reevaluationcounseling (RC) as the framework to presenthis theory
because RC defines seven emo-tional distresses and their associated
catharticreflexes. For example, grief is an emotionaldistress and
the appropriate cathartic processis defined as crying. Scheff
emphasizesthrough examples that his theory clearly dis-tinguishes
between emotion as distress andemotion as discharge. He
hypothesizes thatthe signs of emotional distress and the signs
ofemotional discharge are opposite phenomena.His theory lists four
basic emotional statesproduced by stress: grief, fear, anger,
andboredom. If there are no barriers, the corre-sponding,
involuntary emotional dischargewould be: weeping, shivering and
cold perspi-ration, spontaneous laughter, and nonrepeti-tive talk
(for boredom or stimulus depriva-tion). Therefore, the theory
provides a defini-
tion of catharsis that permits the developmentof hypotheses and
empirical testing.In the latter part of section 1, Scheff
evalu-ates scientific studies to determine whether ornot there is
evidence to support the theory ofcatharsis. Although there is no
direct evidenceContemporary Sociology, July 1982, Volume 11, Number
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446 BOOK REVIEWSin either direction, Scheff documents
consid-erable indirect evidence, especially from thework of Michael
Nichols and Melvin Zax, towarrant a limited support for the theory
ofcatharsis.
Section 2, Applications, provides (1) adiscussion of the theory
of distancing of emo-tion as related to ritual and the mass
enter-tainments of romantic tragedy, fear dramas,contests, and
comedy; and (2) an applicationof the theory of catharsis to
selected classicaland modern dramas, with an analysis of
thecollective audience emotional responses to thecharacters in the
plays and the likelihood ofaudience catharsis.Scheffs research
study of the relationshipof humor and tension is presented in the
thirdsection. A field study and a more controlledexperiment were
the procedures used to testthe hypothesis that the more a person
laughsthe more relaxed she or he becomes. Thesubjects were exposed
to humorous stimuli,and changes in heart rate (HR) and a
moodadjective checklist (MACL) were the indica-tors of relaxation.
Scheff was extremelycautious in reporting the findings. Although
heconcludes that humor lowers tension as mea-sured by the MACL, its
effect on HR is lessclear. Definitive statements about the
re-lationship between humor and tension cannotyet be made. The book
ends with suggestionsof topics and issues for research on
catharsisin fields such as medicine.Catharsis in Healing, Ritual,
and Dramaappears to be appropriate for individuals at-tempting to
develop a theory base for cathar-sis. Although Scheff s interest
and questionsemerged from his work with lay and mentalhealth
professionals, the book provides mini-mal recommendations to guide
them in theirpractice. It would be stimulating but not es-sential
reading for practitioners. Further de-velopment of the theory with
additional em-pirical testing is needed to establish it as
aframework for psychotherapy.Mothercraft and Infant Health:
ASociodemographic and Sociocultural Ap-proach, by DORIS PEYSER
SLESINGER.Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1981.202 pp. $21.95
cloth.
JOANNE MILLERNational Institute of Mental HealthClinical
experience and demographic re-search link infant deaths and
morbidity to
poverty, yet neither practitioners nor scien-tists fully
understand the factors contributingto infant risk, especially after
the first monthof life. Social, cultural, and economic condi-tions
are viewed as somehow placing thepostneonatal infant born into
poverty at ahealth disadvantage but the causal mech-anisms are not
identified. Speculation, how-ever, inevitably focuses on factors
that in-volve the parents and are viewed in Westernculture as the
mother's responsibility. Moth-ercraft and Infant Health is an
exploratorystudy of maternal behavior, orientations, andknowledge
and how they affect infant healthand health care.The study design
is innovative in severalrespects. Although the sample focuses
onmothers in poverty who may have problems incaring for their
newborns, this is not a clinicalpopulation. Earlier studies of
maternal careand child development have most often dealtwith
extreme cases of deprivation and person-ality disorder or already
abused or ill children.While not a randomly selected sample
ofmother-infant pairs, Slesinger's study designmakes her findings
noteworthy. Recent birthswere prescreened in poverty areas of
Mil-waukee and four rural counties in Wisconsinby public health
nurses. The selected infantsare followed for twenty months,
allowing amore comprehensive assessment of infanthealth and
variability in mothering behaviorthan could be ascertained in a
cross-sectionalstudy. Infant health is measured by
reportedillnesses, accidents, weight, length, tested de-velopment,
diet, and preventive health care.To measure the quality of
mothering, indicesare developed that tap the management of
theinfant's physical environment, adequacy ofphysical care,
emotional and cognitive stimu-lation of the child, and the mother's
emotionalmaturity, expressiveness, communicationskills, and basic
child-health knowledge.Slesinger demonstrates substantial variation
inthe competency of poverty mothers, eventhough the respondents
selected for this pilotstudy were identified by public health
nursesas likely to have problems that could affectchild care.The
analysis examines variation in moth-ercraft by sociodemographic
characteristicsand social support resources and then testswhether
mothering independently affects in-fant health. The findings are
presented in ta-bles showing correlation and regressionanalyses,
case examples underlying the statis-tical relationships, and the
author's sum-
Contemporary Sociology, July 1982, Volume 11, Number 4
