| Abstract: | "This monograph represents the studies of a 12-year period in the Pavlovian Laboratory at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic on the nervous disturbances of dogs. When these psychopathologic reactions were first observed in 1931, it was thought unnecessary to publish an account of the experiments, especially as the early disturbances arose accidentally and the symptoms did not differ essentially from those reported previously by Pavlov. But when the animals were kept for longer and longer periods and more detailed studies accumulated, both as a result of planned experiments and of observations over the life-span of the dogs, new and important relationships between the various pathological symptoms appeared, as well as data on the first subtle and hidden (except to special methods of examination) phenomena of nervous imbalance. This book begins with the citation of some remarkable examples of the successes of an objective psychopathology. After the historical development of Pavlov's concepts (Ch. I) and a general description of methods (Ch. II), the step by step loss of nervous balance is described beginning with natural emotional shocks (Ch. III) and extending through the various categories of laboratory procedure (Ch. IV). The detailed life history of three dogs subjected to the same difficult routine (Ch. V) precedes the categorical enumeration and interpretation of the symptoms according to physiological systems (Ch. VI) and the results of therapy (Ch. VII). The emphasis on the existence of functional types and the general scheme of detecting the susceptible ones by the careful measurement of their reactions to controlled stresses is given in Ch. VIII, and the concluding chapter presents trial analyses of the states of imbalance described in these studies"--Foreword. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved). |
|---|