With strong psychotherapy courses being offered less frequently, there are few guides for the beginning psychotherapist. The student can read Freud's writings, study various personality theories, or become skilled in the fundamentals of psychiatric diagnosis and medication, but where does he or she turn to learn how to do psychotherapy? The answer is in this thoughtful, well-written book, The Craft of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, by two clinical psychologists at Yale University.

Kaner and Prelinger begin by defining their subject: psychotherapy consists of two people talking to each other and rests on an elaborated theory of mind. Their particular theory of mind is psychoanalytic, with a specific orientation toward modern ego psychology.