Herbert Schlesinger's The Texture of Treatment is an extraordinary work.

Most practitioners of the dynamic psychotherapies and psychoanalysis would agree with at least one of the following assertions: psychodynamic work is challenging and often quite difficult; the complexity of clinical encounters can be daunting; many concepts that psychodynamic theorists offer as guidance are themselves confusing and unhelpful; and, despite a vast literature on psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, the number of truly helpful, strikingly lucid, embraceable texts remains disturbingly few. Schlesinger has collected years of clinical and supervisory experience, added his obvious sensitivity, humanity, and passion for the subject, laced in measures of humility and humor and produced a text that presumes the accuracy of the first three truisms and fills the void described by the fourth.