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BOOKENDS

PERSONALITY, THE CRUX OF SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. By Dr. A. A. Roback, Sci-Art Publishers, Cambridge, 1931, $1.25

DR. ROBACK, University extension lecturer and instructor in Psychology has, if nothing else, made clear the issues in the study of personality in his recent brief monograph. Students expecting detailed accounts of abnormal cases of the introvert and extrovert, or long digressions on sex inhibitions, phobias, complexes, etc., will be disappointed. Dr. Roback sets mankind into four classifications; those predominantly (1) cerebral, (2) muscular, (3) respiratory and (4) digestive. He then goes on to outline the tendencies of each group.

Dr. Roback's last two chapters re titled "Can Personality be Changed" and "Remedying Certain Defects." Bearing, posture, gait, modulation and intention of the voice "enter into the total personality picture", but practice and exercise can accomplish much Dr. Roback makes numerous general suggestions, but his book is more for the student than for the subject. Perhaps the most skillful thing which the Doctor has done has been to make the layman know the meaning of the technical terms before he gets to them. This, and the easy conversational style in which it is written, make "Personality" good reading, even for those obviously outside the group for which the book is primarily intended.

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