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The title of this book is a deceptively simple question which masks the author's ambitious goals. While he calls his effort An Introduction to the Technique of Analytic Therapy, in my opinion this book is not for beginners. Mendelsohn is attempting to summarize the major concepts and controversies in the theory of analytic therapy. However, his focus is primarily on psychoanalytic psychotherapy and especially child therapy. For some inexplicable reason, he makes no effort to clarify the distinctions between therapy and analysis or between the treatment of children and that of adults. The experienced, analytically oriented clinician knows very well that there are many important differences, but the beginning therapist, attempting to use Mendelsohn's book as an introduction, will not read about them and, I think, will become confused.
The book's major strength is in its clinical vignettes which provide examples not only of the techniques under discussion, but also of Mendelsohn's clinical sensitivity as a therapist. The volume is divided into two parts: an introductory chapter, in which the author presents his basic orientation and argues for his particular point of view, and the rest of the book, which is divided into chapters on each specific technical concept, which clinical examples provided.
In the introduction, the author takes care to clarify that his primary interest is in preoedipal psychopathology, arising from either deficit or conflict. In his opinion, a specific “action response” to promote growth is called for from the therapist in these conditions. Mendelsohn divides intrapsychic forces into those attempting to maintain pathology and those constructive forces that lead to