This is a very useful book. The breadth of approach to a subject which has become topical could prejudice the serious reader against the book as being too ‘trendy’, but the clarification of concepts used by a number of disciplines which the authors, both psychiatrists, earnestly and successfully attempt makes the book a helpful one, both as a survey and a reference book.

A considerable number of its pages (73) is devoted to an appendix and references. The appendix contains over 20 statements made by well-known authorities and is intended to supplement the concepts of normal behaviour included in the text. Jung is among them with a quotation on individuation.

The first part, entitled ‘The disciplines’, is focused on the impact of multiple perspectives. Widely divergent as they would appear there is nevertheless some overlap, and in the second part (Chapter 6) the authors set about classifying the perspectives as follows: