Book reviews published in professional journals provide an interesting glimpse of contemporary interests, ideas and attitudes. The third number of the Journal of Mental Science (formerly Asylum Journal) included book reviews and, after appearing intermittently for a while, they became a regular feature throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. These reviews were probably the principal source of information for asylum doctors about current books in their field, although there were a small number of alternatives for the more specialist readers.

Like it or not, we all live on a planet teeming with variety. East and West for example have developed very differently, even though many of the problems faced by these divergent cultures are similar. True, Europe's colonising yoke in the past four hundred years introduced western infrastructure to many eastern countries, particularly in the fields of administration, communication, health, and education. However, traditional habits run deep, particularly in countries with large rural populations, and the apparent degree of westernisation can be deceptive.

It is widely recognised that health professionals whose work involves psychotherapy or counselling need emotional support themselves to sustain them and to avoid the emotional exhaustion known as professional burn-out. In addition most dynamic psychotherapists recognise the need for such professionals to have therapy themselves to reduce the risk of counter-transferential distortions in their work. There appears, therefore, to be a need for counsellors and therapists to engage in therapy themselves, both to achieve fitness to practise and subsequently to maintain that fitness. In both instances it seems legitimate to regard such therapy as necessary training; the need for continuing training to preserve fitness is clear in other fields such as athletics and the performing arts.

For the past twenty years or more it has been suggested that all our large psychiatric hospitals should be closed and psychiatry transferred to the community. This idea has generated a large amount of discussion, innumerable papers and much anxiety. More recently it has become the stated objective of the Department of Health, and now every region in the country is making concrete plans to transfer psychiatry from the mental hospital to facilities in the community with the definite objective of closing down psychiatric hospitals within a measurable time. Naturally this has generated even more discussion—and even more anxiety.

In June 1985 a group of researchers involved in the study of alcohol problems in general practice in the UK met informally in York for discussion and exchange of ideas. The meeting was arranged under the auspices of Professor David Robinson of the Addiction Research Centre, Institute for Health Studies of the University of Hull. The group included GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, and other related research workers.