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Patricia Hughes describes how, as a medical student and junior psychiatrist interested in psychotherapy, she was unable to find a text which was pitched at the right level. In this beautifully clear book, she brings together her wide experience of the provision and teaching of dynamic psychotherapy to produce a text aimed specifically at undergraduate medical and nursing students and beginners in psychiatry across all disciplines. It is not only the content, but also the style of this book which is different from the commonly used introductory texts of psychotherapy. As it is designed to allow trainees with limited time to access the fundamental aspects of dynamic psychotherapy and its provision within the NHS, each chapter begins with a highlighted box containing the areas to be covered. As an example, Chapter One, A Developmental Model of the Mind, begins with a box containing the following:
Brain and mind. The mind-brain relationship. Born or made: the nature-nurture debate. The neurobiology of emotion. The effect of experience on the developing brain. The effect of severe deprivation on the developing brain. The effect of experience on the mature brain. The nature of mental representations. Mental representations and relating to the world.
This style is a very effective taster of the menu to come, and entices the reader into each chapter which can either be treated as a selection of tapas-like dishes or enjoyed as a complete meal. The ease of dipping in and out of each chapter is heightened by bulletin boxes which summarise the main points of each area. For example, the section on brain and mind in Chapter One begins with a highlighted box containing the five main points which are elaborated on in the text. This teaching method has been crudely described as:
say what you're going to talk about; talk about it; say what you've talked about.
It is, however, based on sound educational theories, whose effective application to teaching psychotherapy has previously been el