Roy Schafer proclaims on the dust jacket, This book is just what is needed at a time when we are assailed by unwarranted doubts about the uses of therapy. Even though the book deserves a subtitle of mentoring new clinicians, I wish that the Divisionwould send copies of it to all plausibly open-minded directors of graduate programs in clinical psychology. In the earlier part of the book, the language is in the third person. By the last third of the book, the authors' remarks are to you, the new therapist. This is the product of not only much clinical experience and theoretical knowledge, but also the result of much teaching experience. Their teaching covers every subject that a budding therapist might need. It deals with the most practical concernsof setting up a practice and takes the reader into the therapy room for learning what it is that a therapist actually does. The whole book models empathy. The latter attributes, however, enhance the selection of this book for an ideal syllabus for graduate students. It should hold a prime place for the first year people. It is the sort of volume to which one returns with greater and greater appreciation as one gains experience. -- Johanna Krout Tabin, PhD, ABPP Psychologist-Psychoanalyst: Division 39 Newsletter Roy Schafer is right (in his laudatory blurb about this book): it is "a remarkable achievement." Kaner and Prelinger (both Yale) reach an implicit rapprochement between person-centered and dynamic psychotherapy. The older psychoanalytic dictums-interpret dreams, resistances, transference, and defenses, and nothing else-have been replaced. his marvelous update in dynamic psychotherapy is a fine addition to the literature. Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. CHOICE A remarkable achievement! A guide through the thickets of psychodynamic psychotherapy that is clear, comprehensive, subtle, penetrating, and filled with well-chosen clinical examples and technical suggestions. Not only a MUST for beginning psychotherapists, it can also help those more experienced refine their methods and deepen their empathic understanding. This book is just what is needed at a time when we are assailed by unwarranted doubts about the uses of therapy. -- Dr. Roy Schafer, author of The Analytic Attitude, Bad Feelings, Insight and Interpretation, and other works Kaner and Prelinger give an inspiring yet demystifying description of psychodynamic psychotherapy. This wonderfully orienting book is a gem for any developing clinician who seeks to understand the fundamentals of psychodynamic theory and technique. The rich clinical vignettes will make engrossing reading for clinicians, supervisors, and patients. -- Suzanne Gassner Kaner and Prelinger's book is at once wise, thoughtful, humane, and practical. Lucidly written, vivid with examples drawn from literature and clinical practice, The Craft of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is a rare pleasure to read. I believe it will become a classic in our field. -- Katherine Dalsimer, Columbia University This is the most beautiful introduction to psychotherapy I have read. It preserves the poetry of human interactions while giving a clear and thoughtful account of what actually goes on. Kaner and Prelinger are teachers, in the deepest sense, of one of the greatest crafts ever devised. -- Jonathan Lear, The University of Chicago This book makes a quite fresh contribution to the teaching of psychotherapy. The authors' goal is, as they say, to tell the story of psychotherapy as a process and as a journey and they bring the story to life with much rich and evocative clinical material. Kaner and Prelinger skillfully introduce the new therapist to psychodynamic theory and technique in an eloquent and unique manner. -- Michael Stadter, Clinical Psychologist-in-Residence, American University Roy Schafer proclaims on the dust jacket, "This book is just what is needed at a time when we are assailed by unwarranted doubts about the uses of therapy." Even though the book deserves a subtitle of "mentoring new clinicians," I wish that the Division would send copies of it to all plausibly open-minded directors of graduate programs in clinical psychology. In the earlier part of the book, the language is in the third person. By the last third of the book, the authors' remarks are to you, the new therapist. This is the product of not only much clinical experience and theoretical knowledge, but also the result of much teaching experience. Their teaching covers every subject that a budding therapist might need. It deals with the most practical concerns of setting up a practice and takes the reader into the therapy room for learning what it is that a therapist actually does. The whole book models empathy. The latter attributes, however, enhance the selection of this book for an ideal syllabus for graduate students. It should hold a prime place for the first year people. It is the sort of volume to which one returns with greater and greater appreciation as one gains experience. -- Johanna Krout Tabin, PhD, ABPP Psychologist-Psychoanalyst: Division 39 Newsletter Beginning students should welcome and profit richly from this illuminating discussion of the basics of psychodynamic psychotherapy. -- W. W. Meissner, SJ M.D. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic: A Journal for the Mental Health Professions, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Fall 2007)
