Self, Symptoms and Psychotherapy: By N. Cheshire and H. Thomä. New York: Wiley, 1987, 300 pp., $79.95.

This volume is the fourth in the series, "Methods in Psychotherapy." It represents a collection of views on a single topic, the self, by a group of British, continental European and American psychologists. Six chapters deal with theoretical issues while the remaining five focus on empirical studies and treatment. The majority of these chapters were authored by the editors. A wide range of theoretical views and different empirical methodologies are introduced with, however, the intent to demonstrate that all of these can be used to examine and illuminate basic psychodynamic notions. Indeed, a facilitation of a rapprochement between cognitive-empirical and the psychodynamic approaches is a prime goal of the editors. Placing themselves firmly within the positivistic frame, they insist that psychoanalytic hypotheses and assumptions be tested empirically, and, unlike many of their colleagues, they believe that is now possible by presenting observations and arguments drawn from both clinical-therapeutic and experimental-psychometric situations. They attempt to show that modern psychoanalytic theories of the self are no longer at odds with concepts originating in social psychology, cognitive psychology, and artificial intelligence. Their