Psychotherapy and Morality. A Study of Two Concepts: By Joseph Margolis. New York: Random House, Inc., 1966. 174 pp.

The author of this volume is a philosopher whose inquiries into the relationship between psychotherapy and morality began through participation in seminars and research projects at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Cincinnati and were subsequently supported by a Public Health Service Special Fellowship. His approach is clearly and appropriately that of an outsider who 'cannot and does not' attempt to add to the body of findings of any given discipline—in this case psychotherapy or psychiatry. His efforts are directed toward elucidating the manner in which values and morals or ethical judgments enter into the psychotherapeutic procedure and the psychotherapist's professional code. He also deals at considerable length with the related but nevertheless special problems of determinism and of the moral and legal responsibilities of the mentally ill.

Stating that his primary interest in this volume is 'in the ways in which the practice of psychotherapy entails value judgments', Margolis observes that a 'competent discussion' of this topic requires both 'a working knowledge of the actual routines of psychotherapeutic practice and of the psychotherapeutic literature' and a knowledge of philosophical literature on value theory (p. 7). Apparently, however, the first of these requirements is not to be interpreted as implying actual competence in the practice of psychiatry or psychotherapy, but rather the kind of knowledge which makes it possible to describe therapeutic theory and practice in terms of 'relevant philosophical categories'. He views it as outside the scope of his function as a professional philosopher to deal with substantive questions of morality as they arise in psychiatric practice. His concern is rather with such questions as 'whether, on any admissable view of psychotherapy, therapeutic practice necessarily raises and must face moral questions' (p. 8). In