The American Psychopathological Association devotes its annual meetings to the discussion of a central topic by members and invited speakers. Social psychiatry was the topic at the 1967 meeting, the 57th of its kind, published in this volume. Fortunately, Joseph Zubin has been the chief editor for a number of years and his imprint has been a guarantee of excellence.
A volume with 18 distinguished contributors cannot be reviewed since the substantive content is too huge. I can only state that it contains the best collection of thinking on social psychiatry now available. For special mention, one must point to the essays by Alexander H. Leighten, John Clausen, Viola Bernard, DeWitt Crandell, and Norman Bell. The reader should not expect a vague discussion of community psychiatry and the now outworn phrase "delivery of services" but a highly sophisticated scientific discussion of sociological theory and