Psychoanalysis and Clinical Social Work: A Contemporary Perspective: Psychodynamic Social Work, by Jerrold R. Brandell. New York:  Columbia University Press, 2004,  474 pp., $58.00.

In this truly encyclopedic volume, Jerrold Brandell, a social work professor and trained psychoanalyst, has undertaken the formidable task of integrating psychoanalytic theory with contemporary clinical social work practice. Rather than simply choosing one theoretical framework from among the many analytic paradigms which have evolved over the last hundred years, however, he has reviewed in depth their emergence, evolution, and eventual metamorphosis into newer paradigms. As such, this work constitutes a prodigious piece of solid intellectual history, which sacrifices neither breadth nor depth in its comprehensiveness. Intended as a textbook, the author's primary purpose is to enhance the reader's knowledge of how a psychodynamic approach can be therapeutically effective in a variety of settings and with diverse client populations. However, what Brandell is describing is not a generic psychotherapy approach, but rather one which, in both content and process, is particularly geared to clinical social work practice, while remaining depth psychological in its treatment approach and psychoanalytic in its approach to diagnostic assessment and understanding.