Strean has written a very readable book relating psychoanalytic concepts to social work. The first chapter consists of an overview. It contains an extremely interesting history of the impact of psychoanalysis on social work practice. There has been a rise and fall in the role played by psychoanalytic concepts in social work. In the 1920's and 1930's psychoanalytic concepts dominated social work theory and humanized its practice. Gradually the psychoanalytic conceptualization of human behavior has been replaced by other frames of reference. Focus on family interaction, role theory, issues of poverty, social discrimination, etc., have moved closer to the foreground. Psychoanalytic concepts have been used less and less, and to some extent Freudian theories have been scapegoated and