Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Independent Tradition edited by Sue Johnson and Stanley Ruszczynski ( Karnac, London, 1999).  188 pp. £19.99.

In Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Independent Tradition published simultaneously with its sister volume, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Kleinian Tradition, Sue Johnson and Stanley Ruszczynski have brought together an impressive collection of papers to produce a volume dedicated to illustrating the work of contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapists influenced by the Independent Tradition of the British School of Psychoanalysis. The basic tenets of this Tradition include the recognition of the importance of early infant development and the relationship between the infant and the mother, emphasized in the theories of Winnicott, Balint and Fairbairn, amongst many others. This is reflected in the structure of the book, the earlier chapters being concerned with early development and environmental failure, and later chapters examining Oedipal and post-Oedipal themes; but throughout familiar concepts, such as ‘true and false self’, ‘basic fault’, ‘the holding environment’, ‘the good enough mother’ and ‘transitional space’ reverberate. The temptation to situate this book too rigidly in any particular psychoanalytic school, however, would be misleading. Each contributor, all senior members of the British Association of Psychotherapists, examines a particular psychoanalytic concept that has interested them through the difficulties encountered in their clinical work, and drawing on not only Independent psychoanalytic theories, but also the work of Kleinian, Contemporary Freudian and American writers, they develop their ideas in creative and sometimes surprising ways.

Controversial topics are embraced with full force, by the questioning of established psychoanalytic theories, or even proposing a radical new theory of mind. Joscelyn Richards describes how she found existing theories about splits in the personality inadequate to account for the clinical phenomena she was experiencing with disturbed patients, which led to her developing with Michael Sinason and colleague