Books received

MORGAN-JONES, RICHARD with ABRAM, JAN. Psycho-Analytic Psychotherapy Trainings. A Guide. London:  Free Association Books, 2001. Pp.  xi + 361. Pbk. £19.99.

This timely directory is an update on Jan Abram's ‘Individual Psychotherapy Training. A Guide’, published in 1992. At that time there were only 15 training schemes divided into analytic and humanistic orientations. The new guide lists 48 trainings and covers an extensive range of treatment modalities such as individual adult training, child psychotherapy training, couple and group training and educational therapy. This guide is intended for prospective patients, students interested in pursuing training and teachers, supervisors and practitioners. Richard Morgan-Jones is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice and also a supervisor at the London Centre for Psychotherapy. Jan Abram is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice and a training therapist for some of the schemes listed in the directory. This guide is more than a directory. The first part is a succinct summary of the evolution of all the modalities from 1924 and does not avoid mentioning splintergroups and disagreements between different approaches. There is also a useful genogram (borrowed from Pedder, 1989). The section concludes with a chapter on the UKCP/BCP debate over standards and assessment and a chapter on the arguments for and against registration. The authors recommend a reading list from major theoretical and clinical contributions. The second part is a detailed directory covering independent trainings and university and NHS linked schemes. The standard format for all training schemes lists the history, theoretical orientation and curriculum and the training structure, subdivided into selection procedure and admission, time commitment and length of training, costs, interruption of training, graduating and beginnings of a career and numbers of students per intake. This is followed up by a sectio