Children of Time and Space, of Action and Impulse. Clinical Studies on the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Severely Disturbed Children: By Rudolf Ekstein, Ph.D., et al. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966. 466 pp.

Few clinicians have the ability to work successfully with seriously disturbed children. Even fewer are at the same time sufficiently self-observant

to be able to explain what transpired between them and their patient. Rarest of all is the man in whom these abilities are combined with that of the gifted teacher. Rudolf Ekstein, principal author of this book, is such a man. During his years at the Southard School and later at Reiss-Davis Child Study Center, he inspired a group of people who have continued to work with him and whose work forms part of this book.

The book is a collection of papers, most of which have appeared in various journals during the last twenty years. It provides a welcome first opportunity for a comprehensive examination of the research carried on by Ekstein and his co-workers, concerning the treatment of psychotic children. Its title refers to the defenses used by these children: some, like 'the Space-Child', live in their own imaginary worlds removed from ours by millions of years or millions of miles; others create a psychological distance by means of their own particular metaphor. Clinical and theoretical papers describe the means by which the therapist reaches out to the child, entering his distant world, interpreting within the metaphor until the child, using the therapist as an auxiliary ego, is enabled to relinquish his defenses. The techniques by which this is accomplished are based on theoretical considerations for which certain psychoanalytic terms have been redefined and a few new concepts have been developed.

Throughout the book there is a feeling of sharing the excitement of discovery as the reader is led along the path taken by the authors in their search for the answers to previously unsolved problems. Two decades ago, nearly all schizophrenic and borderline children were condemned to lifetime custodial care because successful treatment was virtually unknown. These authors, for the sake of furthering research, have cou