Culture, Psychiatry and Human Values.

Opler's book "Culture, Psychiatry and Human Values" is an important milestone in the growth and development of the field of social psychiatry. Indeed, an alternative title for the book would be "Principles of Social Psychiatry." Students in this area (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, etc.) will find an excellent review of relevant topics, ranging from the implications of cultural and subcultural relativity upon psychiatric theory to the therapeutic significance of the social structure of a psychiatric hospital. The bibliography will be especially useful for psychiatrists, in that it brings together pertinent material from a wide variety of sources, including many significant papers outside the range of those most commonly quoted in psychiatric journals. The book contains lucid documentation of studies which illustrate inadequacies of many psychiatric beliefs. For example, attention is called to Roth and Luton's investigation in Tennessee which revealed that rural communities had high rates of mental incapacitation.