Coping and Adaptation.

Abstract

For a long time it has been my contention that mental health is adequate maturity plus adjustment. For the adequately matune person, coping and adaptation are pretty much what living is all about; therefore, a book on this subject is more than welcome. This volume is a follow-up of the Conference on Coping and Adaptation held in Palo Alto, Calif., March 20-22, 1969. The conference was sponsored by Stanford University’s Department of Psychiatry and supported by NIMH. A group of topnotch people, leaders in their fields, have contributed to this multiauthor work on coping and adaptation, an excellent topic for interdisciplinary study. Ecology, field studies of primates, ethology, ethnology, sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis, and political science are all represented in this volume. It is an attempt to further the unification of concepts from all of these fields. This alone is a great advance over the rivalry and even bitterness among the disciplines that have marred the history of studies in the behavioral sciences. Especially pleasing is the fact that the ideas presented here are based on biological theories of evolution stemming from Darwin and Wallace, even though evolution through natunal selection is usually a process measured in hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. All of the chapters are excellent. They are filled with data, well reasoned, broad, tolerant, and simply and clearly written. Especially interesting and illuminating are “Ethology, Ecology, and Ethnological Realities” by Goldschmidt, “Social Structure and Personal Adaptation: Some Neglected Dimensions” by Mechanic, White’s “Strategies of Adaptation: An Attempt at Systematic Description,” and two other exceedingly fine chapters, “Coping, Vulnerability, and Resilience in Childhood” by Murphy, and “Early Adolescence: A Specific and Stressful Stage of the Life Cycle” by Beatnix Hamburg. Also stimulating and informative are the chapters “Coping with Long-Term Disability” by Adams and Lindemann, “Vigilance and Decision Making in Personal Crisis” by Janis, and “Adaptation to Stress in Political Decision Making: The Individual, Small Group, and Organizational Contexts” by George. These are followed by a thorough and informative section titled Assessment of Coping Functions. Lazarus, Averill, and Opton discuss the psychology of coping, French, Rodgers, and Cobb focus on person-environment fit, and Moos details psychological techniques in the assessment of maladaptive behavior. The final chapter, by the editors of the volume, is a summary of the preceding contributions and is titled “Coping and Adaptation: Steps Toward a Synthesis of Biological and Social Perspectives.” Of course, such a synthesis is a hope and a goal to work towand rather than a fait accompli, but it is a noble, realistic, and necessary goal for mankind’s well-being and, possibly, survival. Because of the state of each of the disciplines of the behavioral sciences, this collection is by necessity more a report of ongoing work and a clarification of concepts than a finished synthesis that is of practical value to the clinical psychiatrist. However, acquaintance with this body of work, theory, and thinking should be pant of the education of every psychiatrist. To have it available in a single volume, and by such authorities, is a huge advantage and one not to be missed.