Three points must strike anyone who has embarked on a study of dementia over a period of time. Firstly, that our conception of the syndrome is in a state of flux. Gone, for instance, in the past decade or two, is the requirement of a chronic, progressive, irreversible disorder for the diag- nosis. I remember the surgeon who, when I was a student, returned a referral saying he would operate on the man when his dementia got better. Feeling superior, and encouraged by the consultant psychiatrist, we students laughed a good deal at this. Before we finished clerking on that Unit a visiting...

The purpose of this book is to acknowledge the universality of depression, to throw some light on those aspects of depression which are neglected in the more conventional treatments of the subject and also to attempt to provide a synthesis between the biological and socio-environmental factors which lead to the onset of depression and modify its course. A book devoted to depression has the advantage that it has the space at its disposal to explain and clarify concepts and promising ideas that a chapter in even a comprehensive textbook does not have. A single author writing about all the...