162 Book reviews the activity was undertaken by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the American Psychiatric Association

both set up special committees to liaise with the WPA review committee. Perhaps of even greater interest is the authors ' account of resistance in the Soviet Union, and their comment on whether internal and/or external pressure actually changed Soviet practices. The figures are complex, but it is fair to conclude that there has been a drop in psychiatric internment in the USSR and that it might be causally related to outside pressure. It is today almost easy to see Soviet abuses of psychiatry as self-evident, while being less than vigorous i