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Dr. Usher is a psychologist and psychoanalytic candidate who has written a primer on psychoanalytic psychotherapy for beginning trainees. The book is based on her 13 years' experience as Chief Psychologist at Wellesley Hospital, as well as her academic appointments at the University of Toronto and at York University (all in Toronto). In comparison with similar books with which I am familiar, this one is written on a more elementary level. Its brevity is both its strength and its weakness. It is short enough to be easily manageable by trainees who may have only a passing interest in its subject. But to those trainees who want to master dynamic psychotherapy, it offers too little detail to be an adequate resource and risks oversimplification of complex issues. Although Usher's references include several other books on psychoanalytic psychotherapy, she omitted many of my personal favorites, including those by Bruch, Dewald, Langs, and Roth. Usher's style is informal, readable, and personal. She often writes in the second person, which draws the reader in. She provides a generous number of clinical vignettes.
Although she deals with many aspects of initiating psychotherapy, she has omitted several topics. These include the ground rules of therapy, confidentiality, adjunctive use of medication, fees, and third-party payers. The last two topics would naturally be treated quite differently in Canada, where Usher practices. (Given the current health-care reform debate taking place in the United States as I write, U.S. readers—including those of us who support some form of a single-payer system—would be interested in how Canada's national health program affects the practice of psychotherapy.)