Dramatherapy with Children and Adolescents edited by Sue Jennings. Published by  Routledge, London and New York, 1995;  250 pages. Dramatic Approaches to Brief Therapy edited by Alida Gersie. Published by  Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London and Bristol, Pennsylvania, 1996;  273 pages; £16.95. Drama as Therapy. Theatre as Living by Phil Jones. Published by  Routledge, London and New York, 1996;  326 pages; £15.99. Essays in Drama Therapy: The Double Life by Robert J. Landy. Published by  Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London and Bristol, Pennsylvania, 1996;  268 pages; £14.95. Psychodrama and Systemic Thinking by Chris . Published by , London, ; pages.

Drama might be said to be a key to life. It certainly may be a central aspect in many forms of psychotherapy; for example, Salvador Minuchin (Minuchin & Fishman 1981) has described the importance of the drama of enactment in family therapy whilst Joyce McDougall (1986) has addressed the same issue from a classical psychoanalytic perspective in her book Theatres of the Mind. Illusions and Truth on the Psychoanalytic Stage. This said I suspect that, for many psychotherapists, the involvement of drama in the therapeutic process is more often associated in their minds with ‘acting out’ (which may threaten or destroy the work with their patients) than with any appropriate therapeutic activity.

These five books, in their different ways, give elegant reasons why drama, in the context of dramatherapy (and, in the case of Chris Farmer's contribution, psychodrama) must be given its proper position within the broad family of the psychotherapies practised in this country. The UK Council for Psychotherapy has long recognized psychodrama as a respectable form of psychotherapy. Now the dramatherapists too are deeply involved in the negotiations which, they hope, will see their professional association become a member of the UKCP. There are, however, significant differences between these books and each will meet different needs in their readers. The two edited volumes on specific themes (work with children and brief therapy) show all the variability in style typical of such collections of chapters. However, both will make rewarding reading for any psychotherapist with a particular interest in these very important topics.

The other three books reflect the work of single authors. Robert Landy's volume is a collection of his papers published over a 13 year time span. Phil Jones and Chris Farmer, on the other hand, attempt in their books to bring together their professional experiences gained over several years in as focused and coherent a manner as possible. Thus each book in this colle