Psychotherapy of the Psychoses: Edited by Arthur Burton. (New York: Basic Books, 1961. Pp. 376. $7.50.)

This volume consists of a collection of papers which deal mainly with the psychotherapy of schizophrenia. The editor, Arthur Burton, points out in the preface that a number of different theoretical views are represented, mentioning in particular the influence of the work of Freud, Jung, Rogers, Adler, Binswanger, and Fromm-Reichmann. I would add the names of Harry Stack Sullivan, Erikson, and Buber as having influenced the writers of this volume. One gathers from the reading of Burton's own paper that he himself has attempted to incorporate into his work with schizophrenics the views which he has tried to collect in this volume. The fact that so many different views are represented without any comments to link the different papers together may make the book as a whole confusing for many readers. However, one should bear in mind that most of the authors are psycho-analysts and many have been influenced by the Washington School (Harry Stack Sullivan and Fromm-Reichmann). Thus, if one regards the core of this book as psycho-analytical and the other views represented as peripheral it may be easier to evaluate its contribution to the treatment of schizophrenia. The short introductory chapter is written by Madame Sechehaye, a psycho-analyst working in Geneva, who has become widely known through her first book, La Réalisation symbolique, in which she reports on one successfully treated case of schizophrenia. Madame Sechehaye emphasizes that analysts studying personality disintegration show a growing tendency to give a dominant place to the defence mechanisms which the patient organizes against primary anxieties. She herself believes that the schizophrenic undergoes a massive regression to the pre-genital stages of development and organizes around himself a wall of rigid defences which at first appear to be invincible. She also stresses the existence of a cruel superego in schizophrenics which explains their incapacity to deal with their guilt feelings. She belie