You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This enormous book of 552 pages, closely printed, is almost a shelfful of books collected in one volume. It presents every feasible variation of psychotherapy in theory and practice, amounting to 30 chapters divided into 6 parts.
The foreword is by Jerome Frank; these three pages are a masterpiece of thought, knowledge, experience, and clear presentation. (He should have written also an equally brief and equally pertinent concluding epilogue at the end of the book.) Frank emphasizes the relative efficacy of almost all therapeutic approaches, especially when the therapist has a certain therapeutic enthusiasm, understands the patient, and the patient accepts the therapist's invitation to change. Frank's final statement: “No medical illness would respond to such a wide range of therapies. Is psychotherapy a cure for which there is no disease?”
Later Frank states that the therapeutic tool of all therapists is symbolic communication, conveyed primarily by words but in some therapies conveyed also through meaningful activities or exercises. The effectiveness of all therapy seems to rest on the therapist's communication skills. Basic to the success of all therapy is the therapist's ability to convey his understanding of the patient's problems.
The two editors, Irwin Kutash and Alexander Wolf, are somewhat less philosophical than Frank. They aim at an enlargement of the practicing therapist's horizon. They hope in this way to enable the open-minded therapist to recommend the right treatment for the right patient.
All six parts of the book are written by authorities in their respective fields. All have been asked to give a short theoretical outline, and then to proceed with the presentation of clinical material. Each part is introduced by the editors with a brief and clear summary. The part on psychoanalysis therapy opens with a chapter by Harold Blum. The neo-Freudians represent Adler's, Jung's, Sullivan's, and the existential philosophical therapy. This is followed by a part d