This book is aimed mainly at a professional readership, especially GP's, but also aims to be accessible to the interested general reader. It contains a selection of Robin Skynner's clinical papers and lectures. Skynner sets out to bring together current knowledge about group and family therapy. He looks at the relationship between the different psychotherapies (psychoanalysis, behavioural therapies, family therapy, stranger-group therapy), and attempts to integrate these different approaches into a comprehensive theory.

The fourteen chapters of the book are organised into three sections: (1) Early Papers - setting out basic ideas and general principles, (27 Special Applications - physician as family therapist, school phobia, marital problems, sexual counselling in general practice, (3) Group-Analytic Family Therapy. Each paper is prefaced by the editor,