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Dr. Karasu is the Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association's Commission on Psychiatric Therapies. Dr. Bellak is the editor and author of many books. One would expect an outstanding work from them, and it is forthcoming in Specialized Techniques in Individual Psychotherapy. There are 25 chapters by an impressive roster of outstanding experts. Drs. Karasu's and Bellak's own contributions set a high standard for the remainder of the volume.
The opening chapter is a reprint of Dr. Karasu's excellent article, “Psychotherapies: An Overview,” first published in The American Journal of Psychiatry in 1977. In this article Dr. Karasu states that he “shall organize the morass of systems (of psychotherapy) practised today according to a troika of basic themes around which each school may be said to broadly, but distinctively pivot. These representing a composite of dimensions, are referred to as dynamic, behavioral, and experiential.” He proceeds to do exactly what he set out to do, and manages to systematize an enormous amount of information in a readable and comprehensive brief analysis.
It becomes immediately clear that the editors' and most of the authors' major interests are in the “dynamic” rather than the “behavioral” or “experiential” approaches. Dr. Karasu, in his chapter on General Principles of Psychotherapy, develops the general principles of dynamic psychotherapy. He describes two psychotherapeutic parameters for us: an emphasis on transference and intrapsychic conflict and an emphasis on therapeutic alliance and adaptation to current reality. He also contributes chapters on psychotherapy with physically ill patients and dying patients.
Dr. Bellak, in his chapters on Brief and Emergency Psychotherapy, and Enabling Conditions for Psychotherapy of Acute Schizophrenics, writes briefly about the applicability of such concepts as transference/countertransference relationships, the therapeutic alliance, and the therapeutic contract. He gives a great deal of practica