This is an excellent book. It will be read with interest, profit, and excitement by medical students who are the principal audience the author has in mind. Others too—psychologists, nurses, social workers, and counselors from various disciplines—will find in it a clear exposition of human development and personality.
The author writes extremely well, and his chapters capture not only his discriminating scholarship and his remarkably rich treasury of clinical experience but his essential warmth and genuine engagement with the events of human interaction. His pervasive humanity is clearly evident in the introductory remarks which clearly define the unique task of the physician. Equally impressive is the author's success in avoiding the pitfalls of allegiance to single idealogies, and to closedcircuit thinking. While he presents a dynamic view of personality functioning, his inferences are tempered by empirical data and clinical experience beyond the immediate realm of psychoanalysis.
This balance, clear throughout,