Witchcraft and Hysteria in Elizabethan London (£45, 149 pp., 1991) is edited with an introduction by Michael MacDonald, Professor of History at the University of Michigan. George Cheyne: The English Malady (1733) (£40, 370 pp., 1991) is edited with an introduction by Roy Porter, Senior Lecturer in the social history of medicine at the Wellcome institute for the History of Medicine, London. The Asylum as Utopia (£40, 240 pp., 1991) is edited with an introduction by Andrew Scull, Professor of Sociology and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego, Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System by J. M. Charcot (£45, 438 pp., 1991) is edited with an introduction by Ruth Harris, Fellow of Modern History at New College, Oxford. All four titles are published by Tavistock/Routledge, London, in a series of facsimile editions.

Andre Koppers is a historian, now working as a research assistant attached to the International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry. His A Biographical Dictionary on the Political Abuse of Psychiatry in the USSR is published by the IAPUP, Amsterdam (£5, 180 pp., 1990) Lone Jacobsen is head nurse and Peter Vesti a psychiatrist at the Danish Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims. Torture Survivors–A New Group of Patients is published by the Danish Nurses1 Organization, Amsterdam (£12, 80 pp., 1990, in an English translation by Bente Bach) and is intended primarily for nurses. Finally, Eric Stover, a staff officer with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Elena Nightingale, lecturer in health policy at Harvard and chair of the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, edited The Breaking of Bodies and Minds, published by W. H. Freeman, New York (£16.95 (pb), 335 pp., 1985).

Alzheimer's Disease. The Concept of Disease and the Construction of Medical Knowledge (Thesis Publishers, Amsterdam, $31, 357 pp., 1990) is by Rob Dillmann. The book is based upon his dissertation.

Ties that Bind: Essays on Mothering and Patriarchy (University of Chicago Press, $14.95 (pb), $29.95 (hb), 306 pp., 1990) is a collection of essays that originally appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. It is edited by Jean F. O'Barr, Director of the Duke University Women's Studies Program and Editor of Signs, Deborah Pope, Associate Professor of English at Duke University and an Associate Editor of Signs, and Mary Wyer, Managing Editor of Signs.Women and Madness. The incarceration of Women in Nineteenth Century France, by YannicK Ripa, is published by Polity Press, Cambridge (£29.50, 175 pp., 1990). Dr Ripa teaches history at the University of Paris, Jussieu.

Psychodrama-Inspiration and Technique, edited by Paul Holmes and Marcia Karp, is published by Routledge, London (£14.99 (pb), £35.00 (hb), 253 pp., 1991). Paul Holmes is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, formerly consultant at St George's Hospital, London, and now based in Mexico. He is a member of the London Centre for Psychotherapy and was the first chairman of the British Psychodrama Association. Marcia Karp trained in psychodrama in the USA under its founder, Dr J. L. Moreno. Since moving to England, where she established the Holwell Centre for Psychodrama Training, she has been instrumental in setting up training schemes throughout Europe.

From Autothanasia to Suicide–Self-killing in Classical Antiquity, by Anton J. L van Hooff, is published by Routledge, London (£35, 306 pp., 1990). This is the first book by this author who is a senior lecturer in ancient history at Nijmegen University, the Netherlands. Suicide over the Life Cycle, edited by Susan T. Blumenthal and David J. Kupfer, is published by American Psychiatric Press, Washington. DC (£55.95, 799 pp., 1990). Dr Blumenthal is Chief of the Behavioural Medicine Unit and former head of the Suicide Research Unit in Maryland. Dr Kupfer is Professor and Chairman at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Youth Suicide, edited by Peter Cimbolic and David Jobes, is published by Charles A. Thomas, Illinois ($26.75, 122 pp., 1990), Dr Cimbolic is Director of the Counselling Centre at the Catholic University, and Associate Professor of Psychology. Dr Jobes is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Catholic University,

Handbook of Sleep Disorders (Neurological Disease and Therapy Series 6) ($198, 920 pp., 1990) is published by Marcel Dekker, New York. It is essentially an American book (with 24 out of 36 chapters originating from North America) with a distinctly American point of view. The book has been edited by Professor M. J. Thorpy, the Chairman of the Diagnostic Classification Steering Committee of the American Sleep Disorders Association. Professor Thorpy is also Director of the well known Sleep-Disorders Center, Montefiore Medical Center, New York.

The Mystique of Dreams: A Search for Utopia Through Senoi Dream Theory (University of California Press, Berkeley, $9.95 (pb), 146 pp., 1990) is by G. William Domhoff, Professor of Psychology and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Dreaming Brain (Penguin, London, £6.99, 319 pp., 1990) is by J. Allan Hobson, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard and an internationally recognised dream researcher. Dreamwork in Psychotherapy and Self Change (Norton, New York, £25, 372 pp., 1990) is by Alvin R. Mahrer who is Professor of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, and author of numerous books on psychotherapy and dreams. Dream, Phantasy and Art (Routledge, London, £30 (hb), £10.99 (pb), 120 pp., 1991) is by Hanna Segal, former Freud Professor of Psychoanalysis at University College, London, and a leading Kleinian psychoanalyst and writer. The Rhetoric of Dreams (Cornell University Press, Cornell, $22.50, 217 pp., 1988) is by Bert. O. States, Professor of Drama at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

C. J. Jung and the Humanities: Toward a Hermeneutics of Culture (Routledge, London, £25, 372 pp., 1990) is edited by Karin Barnaby and Pellegrino D'Aciernio. The book is a selection of essays and discussions from a conference in 1986 jointly sponsored by Hofstra University and the C. G. Jung Foundation of New York. Karin Barnaby has taught comparative literature at Hofstra University and is now at New York University, She has published an article on Schiller and Jung and is associate editor of Quadrant. Pellegrino D'Acierno is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of Italian studies at Hofstra University. He is the author or translator of several books on comparative literature.

A Prince of Our Disorder. The Life of T. E. Lawrence by John Mack, an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is published by Oxford University Press, Oxford, as part of Oxford Lives Series (£9.95, 561 pp., 1990). It was first published in hardback in 1976. Lawrence of Arabia, by Jeremy Wilson, a leading British authority on T. E. Lawrence, is published in paperback by Minerva, London (£9.99, 1188 pp., 1990).

Creativity and Madness: New Findings and Old Stereotypes, by Albert Rothenberg, is published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (£16.50, 199 pp., 1990). Professor Rothenberg is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University and Director of Research at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He is principal investigator for the project ‘Studies in the creativity process'.

Medical Technology and Society: An interdisciplinary Perspective is published by the MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (£15,95 (pb), £26.95 (hb), 571 pp., 1990). Its publication is sponsored by the Affred P. Sloan Foundation as part of a New Liberal Arts Program for undergraduates. The authors, Joseph D. Bronzino, Vincent H. Smith and Maurice L Wade, are university teachers-Bronzino and Wade at Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut, and Vincent Smith is Professor at Montana State University.

Little did I think when I accepted the invitation to become the Patron of your College that you would finally catch up with me, in your 150th year, by strapping me to a lectern and forcing yourselves to listen to me. However, I can only assume that if your professional reputation is anything to go by I should at least be guaranteed the best audience I have ever had!

Child sexual abuse is a commonly encountered and often emotionally damaging experience, maintained by secrecy and followed by denial after disclosure. Treatment in this field involves both the child and the family in a variety of treatment settings and modalities, often proceeding in parallel. Child developmental considerations dictate that treatment often proceeds in phases. It aims to protect the child from further abuse and the consequences of disclosure, and address the trauma and context of the abuse. Careful planning and co-operation is required by the many professionals working in this stressful area in order to avoid confusion, conflicts, and splits which may mirror relationships in the family. The heterogeneity of the problem is reflected in the fact that treatment cannot be offered in a uniform programme. Legal issues may influence the treatment process. Evaluation of treatment modalities, the identification of protective factors and achieving long-term adjustment in the least detrimental manner offer challenges in this newly developing field.

Several recent studies have found markedly increased rates of schizophrenia among West Indian immigrants to the UK. Almost exclusively, authors have sought psychosocial explanations for these findings. This paper hypothesises that environmental causes, notably obstetric complications and perinatal infections, provide more plausible aetiological models, especially for the raised rates of schizophrenia among second-generation West Indian immigrants.

We established first-contact rates of schizophrenia in the defined area of Camberwell between 1965 and 1984. The rate of schizophrenia, whether defined by ICD, RDC, or DSM–III criteria, rose over the period under study. This finding is at odds with reports of an overall decline in first-admission rates for schizophrenia in England, over the same period. The discrepancy was largely accounted for by the influx into Camberwell of individuals of Afro-Caribbean origin, who showed rates of schizophrenia between four and eight times that of their Caucasian counterparts.

A case-control study was performed using 90% of all first-contact patients with a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia residing in the London borough of Camberwell between 1965 and 1984. Cases and controls were obtained from the Camberwell psychiatric case register. Controls were those presenting with first episodes of non-psychotic disorders, matched for age, sex and period. The risk of schizophrenia was greater in those of Afro-Caribbean ethnicity, irrespective of age, gender or place of birth. This risk increased over the study period. The results cannot be explained by changes in the age, gender or ethnic structure of the local population. Effects of misdiagnosis or change in diagnostic practice were reduced by using uniform operational criteria. Possible explanations include maternal exposure to unfamiliar infective agents, a differential fall in the age at onset of illness, or worsening social adversity.

The prevalence and inception rates of treated schizophrenia in the population of inner-city Salford were compared with those from a similar survey, ten years earlier. Data were obtained from a computerised case register and a postal questionnaire sent to GPs, and case notes rated on the SCL and screened using ICD–9. The point-prevalence rate of 6.26 per 1000 adult population was higher than that previously reported (4.56), despite decreases in total inception rate and in the general population. Changes in rates are presumed to be related primarily to population movements and ageing of the schizophrenic sample. Compared with 1974, the numbers of in-patient days and long-stay in-patients had fallen substantially by 1984, although annual admissions increased over the decade; day-patient and out-patient attendances, and extramural contacts with psychiatrists, community psychiatric nurses, and social workers had also increased. Almost 62% of cases were maintained on depot injections as out-patients in 1984. Over 75% of identified schizophrenic patients were in contact with psychiatrists, but only 7 out of 557 were solely in contact with their GP. In spite of the emphasis on community care, responsibility for schizophrenic patients was still carried overwhelmingly by hospital psychiatric services.

First-admission rates to psychiatric hospitals, and data from certain psychiatric case registers suggest that there may have been a substantial decline in the administrative incidence of schizophrenia in recent years. However, data from the Nottingham case register show that rates for first-onset schizophrenia remained stable between 1975 and 1987. It is suggested that variations in trends between different parts of the UK may be partly explained by differences in the proportion of migrants and their children in the population at risk.

The overall psychiatric hospital admission rates in Jamaica were 136 per 100 000 in 1971 and 69 per 100 000 in 1988. The admission rate for schizophrenia was 69 per 100 000 in 1971 and 35 per 100 000 in 1988. The 49% reduction in admission rates over these 17 years is attributed to the introduction of an island-wide community mental health service with psychiatric admission to general parish hospitals in 1972. This admission rate for schizophrenia is five to six times lower than the rate reported for Afro-Caribbeans in the UK by a number of studies, and is more in keeping with the admission rate for schizophrenia reported for the general population in England.