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Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice: The DSM-IV Edition, by Glen Gabbard, is a second edition extensively revised, in part to accommodate changes that have occurred in passing from DSM-III-R to DSM-IV. Credit for the original idea of the book and choosing Gabbard to write it must be given to Carol Nadelson who was president of the APA at the time. That the American Psychiatric Association Press has published a second edition of this book suggests that dynamic principles, especially when articulated in a nonpolemical way, continue to appeal to a wide readership of psychiatrists.
To this edition have been added a chapter further elaborating the dissociative disorders and a new chapter on the subject of termination of psychotherapy. The book will be a welcome reference for all mental health workers, perhaps especially those who are hospital based, and it should become a basic text for all trainees. Most of all, it is to be hoped that this book will come to the attention of residents in psychiatry since it seems that psychodynamic principles of diagnosis and treatment may be most endangered by the increasingly exclusive emphasis of descriptive, academic psychiatry in training programs. For example, making diagnostic formulations, about which Gabbard writes extensively (see, e.g., pp. 84-87), is in danger of becoming a lost art.
“Nonpolemical” characterizes this comprehensive, well-written, and highly readable book. Gabbard's capacity to integrate biological and various dynamic perspectives is remarkable, and the book is clearly a labor of love to which our profession is much indebted. Overall, the synthesis Gabbard accomplishes is eminently