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.
Dryden explains in his preface that he has brought this book into being in order to fill a gap, the gap being a ‘comprehensive British edited text on different approaches to individual psychotherapy’. Remarking that ‘novice therapists are faced with the decision of how best to help their clients—in terms of selecting the most appropriate therapeutic arena(s)’, he states that his purpose in editing this book is to ‘sensitize psychotherapists to the issues involved in the choice of relevant therapeutic arenas’.
In the first chapter Windy Dryden looks at therapeutic arenas; he looks at the prevalence and pros and cons of individual therapy and group therapy, as well as combinations of both. The next three chapters are an exposition of psychodynamic therapy, starting with the Freudian approach by Michael Jacobs; then the Kleinian approach by Cassie Cooper; and lastly the jungian approach by Kenneth Lambert. Chapter five is on person-centred therapy (Rogerian) by Brian Thorne, six is on personal construct therapy by Fay Fransella, seven on existential therapy by Emmy van Deutzen-Smith, eight on gestalt therapy by Fay Page, nine on transactional analysis by Laurence Collinson, ten on rational-emotive therapy by Windy Dryden and eleven on behavioural psychotherapy by Dougal Mackay. This concludes the chapters devoted to specific and recognisable schools of therapy.
In chapter 13, written by Windy Dryden and associates, a comparative analysis of individual therapies is attempted. It is an assembly of tabulated matter based on the responses to a questionnaire which was given to each of the contributors. I was unable to swallow, let alone digest it, but doubtless it will appeal to some. Chapter fourteen is entitled ‘Individual therapies: limitations’; each of the contributors is given 1000 words with which to give an account of what they feel are the limitations of their approach.
The remaining three chapters of the book are devoted to the eclectic practice of individual psychot