It is a pleasure to read a book like this from a general practitioner. There is also a sadness, reflected in the book, that this sort of approach in primary care may become harder and harder to sustain in the face of the demands put on family doctors by NHS ‘reforms’, fundholding, new contracts and increasing shortages of new recruits to the specialty.

John Holland has been a GP in Wansford, near Peterborough, for many years. He has been oriented towards a psychodynamic approach, both in his dealings with patients and in his work as a trainer of new GPs. He has worked with some of his patients in formal weekly psychodynamic counselling; but mostly, and it is beautifully