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This volume is addressed to psychotherapists who are inexperienced in treating adolescents. It is intended as a practical handbook, utilizing concrete descriptions of the therapist's behavior in the office setting. The author views adolescence from a frame of reference that leans heavily on Blos and Erikson. However, the significant loss of conceptual precision from oversimplification makes the framework more 'psychodynamic' than psychoanalytic.
The book is divided into two well-organized sections. In the first, Meeks takes up the special attributes of adolescents, and what these in turn require of therapists. The diagnostic evaluation, establishment of the therapeutic alliance, and problems of ongoing psychotherapy are discussed in logical sequence. Chapters are devoted also to termination and to dealing with parents, with recommended readings at the end of each chapter.
The second section is concerned with the technical complications arising from extreme behavior. Meeks reviews the problems of suicide attempts, runaways, violence, legal infractions, sexual activity, illegitimate pregnancy, acute psychosis, and drug abuse.
The author's breezy style does not obscure his obvious sensibility and empathy as a clinician and therapist. The numerous vignettes will doubtless stimulate the neophyte reader's identification with him. However, the descriptions, though concrete, are not detailed and specific enough to pinpoint the developmental subphase status of the patients discussed. Nor are the general developmental principles applied in sufficient systematic exegesis to convey the workings of the diagnostic evaluative process and the application of the results.
Meeks considers modalities other than outpatient psychotherapy in a valuable discussion of brief and extended hospitalization, group