Psychotherapy Comes of Age

Reviews the book, Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders: A Step-by-Step Treatment Manual edited by David H. Barlow (1985). This is an excellent volume in which recognized experts in the treatment of specific psychological problems describe in some detail their current treatment procedures. Each chapter begins with a brief description of the rationale for the treatment and usually a brief review of the evidence for the effectiveness of the approach. But the focus is on treatment techniques, with extensive use of actual case histories and transcripts of sessions to illustrate procedures. Many chapters include instruments used in the diagnosis and the monitoring of treatment, which makes this volume a valuable reference source for clinicians. An inherent weakness in a book of this type is that in some cases, the complexity of the treatment available for a given disorder is too great to present adequately in a single chapter. Neverthless, this book would make a fine text for a graduate-level course in psychotherapy in which the focus is on the practical aspects of treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)