Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy: Promoting Change in Non-responders by Lorna Smith Benjamin. Published by  the Guilford Press, New York, 2003;  351 pp; £34.00.

The proliferation of different therapies and the vast number of books describing them makes the task of deciding whether or not to enter into a different therapeutic terrain difficult. Benjamin's new book has a number of virtues which would make her book a valuable addition to both the beginning and the very experienced therapist. She addresses the demands of that group of those variously called ‘difficult’, ‘hard to engage’, ‘personality disordered’ or, as Benjamin, using American terminology, calls them, ‘non-responders’. They:

have been tried on many different combinations of medications, and have had one or more extended courses of treatment with psychotherapy. They suffer significantly and are greatly impaired in functioning. The time and money invested in them and by their care providers in trying to find effective relief are likely to have been substantial. (p. vi)

Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT) offers a structured and flexible approach to working with non-responders based on individually tailored case formulations that organize the information elicited from the