Nicholas Temple and Margot Waddell have edited a valuable series of books describing the work of the present departments of the Tavistock Clinic. Facing It Out, edited by Robin Anderson and Anna Dartington, presents ‘clinical perspectives on adolescent disturbance’ and it gives a rich and instructive portrait of the work of the Adolescent Department of the Tavistock Clinic. True to the words of the editors of the series, this book is evidence of the clinic's tradition of developing ‘a wide range of psychotherapeutic approaches to mental health that have from the beginning been strongly influenced by psychoanalysis’ (p. vii).

Clinical descriptions are detailed and clear. The range of cases seen is impressive and anyone