Originally published in 1913, this title looks at how the mind affects health. Up until this time medicine was mainly concerned with the ‘physical side of man’, this title aims to redress the balance. The author defines the two types of mind: masculine and feminine and goes on to show ‘that upon them depend the functional nervous disorders that afflict humanity’.

There are two points from which humanity may be viewed, the bodily and the mental. Hitherto, and for various reasons, medicine has concerned itself almost solely with the physical side of man. The result has been disappointing, for, necessary as it is to be acquainted with the bodily structure in health and in disease, the changes that occur in the latter only represent the physical results of a process, and not the means by which the damage is done. Now the duty of the physician is like that of the pilot; to bring his patient safely into port, availing himself of every agency with that one object in view. Therefore, Mind, in the fullest and widest sense, must be one of his chief studies.

As psychiatry has developed it has proved to be susceptible to the influence of contemporary social and political mores. With its origins in nineteenth-century Europe, psychiatry evolved as an ethnocentric body of knowledge, the vehicle of implicit and overt racism. Originally published in 1988 this author, however, saw no reason why the contemporary psychiatrist should not challenge this ethnocentrism. He provides a critical account of the development of psychiatry in relation to its cultural context and then examined contemporary practice of the time in the light of this development. Throughout, the book is informed by an awareness of issues of race and culture and of their difficult interactions, the author emphasising both the frequency of racist attitudes and the very real cultural distinctions in our society, distinctions that can be used to mask what are actually racist sentiments. What emerges is not just a plea for an anti-racist, culture sensitive psychiatry, but a blueprint for how this can be brought about. He argued that the shift towards community work and social psychiatry could reorientate the profession by confronting it with its social setting and responsibilities. This book represented a significant contribution to this literature for all mental health professionals and social scientists with an interest in this field at the time; the author has gone on to write many more.

Originally published in 1950, the name of the late Dr H.G. Baynes was already well-known as a leading exponent of and translator of the writings of Professor C.G. Jung, as author and as psychotherapist. The essay which gives it title to this varied and interesting collection of writings, shows clearly Dr Baynes’s gift for illuminating a familiar subject with fresh insight drawn from his wide knowledge of the unconscious mind. He can make the unconscious real to us, and can convince us that myth and dream are expressions of vital problems of the human soul. The collection includes material to interest many types of reader, from The British Journal of Medical Psychology, from Folk-Lore, from The Society for Psychical Research. But perhaps most full of interest for the majority of readers are the first three chapters of an unfinished book – What It Is All About; here we find an admirable introduction, given with a wealth of illustration, to the main concepts of Professor Jung’s analytical psychology. Dr Baynes made Professor Jung’s thought his own, without loss of his own originality. He can touch with significance any subject on which he writes, whether it be the problem of the individual or the kindred problems of humanity.

Born in Vienna in 1864, Bernard Hollander was a London-based psychiatrist. He is best known for being one of the main proponents of phrenology. This title originally published in 1931 looks at the different regions of the brain and their various functions in relation to intelligence. From the preface: "The records of cases collected by the author, including some of his own, point to there being at least three main regions of totally different functions.... Of these three regions, the frontal is by far the largest in man and the most important, being the region for the manifestation of the highest intellectual abilities." Back in print this is a chance to read all about the study of the brain, mind and external signs of intelligence from the early twentieth century.

Originally published in 1928 in the Psyche Miniatures Medical Series, this title was an attempt to bring to the attention of British psychologists and psychiatrists some aspects of the work and thought of French psychologist Charles Blondel. Well known abroad but little known in England at the time, he was professor of Psychology at the University of Strasbourg and founder of a school of ‘morbid psychology’. This book contains two papers, the first concerning the theory of the disordered mind and the second deals with the relation between disordered thought and speech. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.