‘Forms of Feeling—The Heart of Psychotherapy’ by Robert F. Hobson. London:  Tavistock Publications. Pp.  318.

This is a personal book in which the author elaborates his Conversational Model of psychotherapy. The book is divided into three sections. The first is called ‘The True Voice of Freedom’ and consists of ten chapters. In these chapters Hobson addresses theoretical and philosophical issues that underpin his Model. I would single out in particular his chapter on ‘Persons’ where he explores the difference between persons and things. This leads the author to explain the mutuality that exists in therapy between patient and therapist. The chapter on ‘Experience’ looks at action as a human activity associated with claiming personal responsibility for experiences and behaviour that we are unaware of. ‘Symbols’ is a complex chapter influenced by the work of Langer and Jung amongst others. Hobson contrasts discursive and presentational forms of language. The former is used as the language of experimental science and the latter as the language of feeling and imaginative thinking. His book constantly addresses the struggle between the therapist as the scientist observing and formulating internal events within his patient, and the therapist as artist using himself as a sounding board to evoke private meanings of undisclosed experience that will inevitably arise within the confines of the relationship. Clearly for Hobson the way in which language is used is of primary importance.

According to Hobson the crucial task for the therapist is to create a feeling language together with his patient. It is through this that communication and communion can come to exist. He would see this as an important curative factor. I find this emphasis on formulating a common language that captures the feelings existing in and between patient and therapist the most valuable part of the book. Anyone currently working within psychiatry in the NHS will be confronted by the dominance of the biological model and its impact on the mentality of training psychiatrists. Hobson's stress on subjective feeling and