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I remember one of the founders of my own training suggesting that there are two ways to nurture the development of psychoanalytic psychotherapy students and also presumably qualified professionals. She likened the process to growing roses: one results in a line of espalier roses, their growth firmly directed and trained against the wall. The other leads to lots of bushes of different sizes and shapes growing into their own potential. It is clear from this collection of papers largely produced by those connected to the Cambridge Society of Psychotherapy that the ethos is of the ‘let a thousand flowers bloom’ school of thought. As far as the book goes this leads to a mixed bunch, with some bright flowers and some where drastic pruning could have helped.
The CSP editors Lucy King and Rosemary Randall in their inviting introduction to this book suggest that psychoanalytic psychotherapy finds itself between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, it is subject to the same criticisms as psychoanalysis, criticisms about a lack of scientific credibility or low-cost effectiveness, or that treatment is prolonged for economic self-interest with little proof of success. On the other hand, the expansion of psychoanalytic ideas seems to be disapproved of by established and élitist psychoanalytic institutes who want to keep control. The editors seek to look at the value of ‘hybrid vigour: the creative potential released when the “dire mastery” of psychoanalytic tradition and succession is put aside’ (p. xii). To do this they write that much of the book is concerned with those who speak from the margins but who are neglected as contributing to the profession. As a second major theme King and Randall comment on the managerial and accountability pressures that restrict new developments and thinking together with the psychoanalytic psychotherapy organizations' inferiority complex that leads to a hankering after what the editors refer to as the ‘pure gold’ of psychoanalysis.
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