Lost in the Clouds

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy edited by Frederic Flach (1989). This book is is No. 5 in the "Directions in Psychiatry Monograph Series." It purports to discuss the nature of psychotherapy, but most of the time the reader feels as though the pilot has lost his directions and is circling, never finding the coordinates for his destination. The first two chapters, "How Does Psychotherapy Work," neither educate the beginner nor elucidate the process for the experienced psychotherapist. The third chapter, "The Prediction of Outcome in Psychotherapy" by Sol Garfield, might be viewed as useful by some clinicians, but the data have been presented elsewhere in a more elaborated and understandable fashion. Leopold Bellak's chapter on the current status of classical Freudian psychoanalysis is interesting. Two chapters deal with the Rorschach, the first focuses on the Rorschach as a technique designed to promote projection and regression, the second "assesses regression." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)