Therapeutic Studies on Psychotics: By Julius I. Steinfeld, M.D. (Illinois, U.S.A.: Forest Press, 1951. Pp. 262.)

This book summarizes some of the author's experience with regard to the treatment of psychotic patients. It is concerned with both psychotherapy of psychotics and the use of physical methods of treatment as an adjunct to psychotherapy. About half the book is concerned with the modifications that the author thinks necessary in the application of the psycho-analytical technique to psychotics. Case histories of fourteen patients are given. One of the most important considerations in the author's view is the problem of transference and counter-transference. In the treatment of psychotics the therapist must make use of the counter-transference as one of the most important therapeutic measures; in many cases the development of the indispensable transference situation cannot be achieved on classical lines or by the sole use of verbal interpretation; the psychotic is in need of 'active sympathy', a feeling of genuine love that will 'make good for the tremendous deficit of love' undergone by the patient. Thus the psychotherapist-patient relationship answers a real need, like the parental instinct and yet different. The relationship with the patient is not at the oedipal level alone, and in some instances the therapist must be able to overcome the fear-cathected drives and allow the patient to introject him, a necessary step in the building up of a more mature body ego. Great importance therefore is placed on the ability of the therapist to produce a true 'erlebnis' in his patient. He must be more than an ego-strengthening agent or permissive super-ego; he must be able to adapt himself instinctively to the different roles in response to the needs of the id, ego and super-ego. The