Handbook of Evidence-Based Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Bridging the Gap between Science and Practice. Edited by Raymond A. Levy and J. Stuart Ablon. Totowa, NJ:  Humana Press, 2009.  399 pp.

This book is dedicated to memories of the life and legacy of a psychodynamic treatment researcher, the late Enrico Jones. This dedication is paradigmatic since the volume focuses on the interface between empirical science and the practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy. The editors remind their readers that “psychodynamic treatment remains, scientifically speaking, the poor cousin to other treatments” (p. xxv).

This statement is immediately counteracted by Falk Leichsenring's elegant opening chapter, a review of efficacy and effectiveness studies of psychodynamic therapy. Placing this author at the start of the book helps correct the introductory statement about the status of psychodynamic treatment, as Leichsenring is the most prominent German researcher in the meta-analysis of psychodynamic treatment studies. He has produced an impressive collection of such evaluative work—the most recent being a hotly debated (even in the New York Times) study that he coauthored on the efficacy and effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (Leichsenring and Rabung 1).

Why is it often the impression of the general public and of the psychiatric scientific community that the psychodynamic view has outlived its usefulness? Does the sheer number of cognitive-behavioral treatment studies account for the negative press, or are there other factors at work?

Ever since the Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change2 became a primary source for up-to-date information on the state of the art, psychodynamic