Review of Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy.

Reviews the books, Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy by Paul L. Wachtel (2009). Paul Wachtel has done it again. After writing for many years about integrating psychoanalytic, behavioral and family approaches to psychotherapy in addition to cultural issues, Wachtel has returned to his psychoanalytic origins to explicate his ideas about cyclical psychodynamics from the perspective of contemporary relational psychoanalysis. This book is an excellent way for psychotherapists unfamiliar with how psychoanalysis has changed since Freud to familiarize themselves with recent developments from a writer who does not get lost in the jargon that distances many who find psychoanalytic language lacking in clarity. Psychoanalysts will find some critiques of traditional views and expansions of ways of looking at the clinical situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)