The Fragile Alliance: An Orientation to Psychotherapy of the Adolescent, 5th ed

From our regular book review column.

I have had a lifelong passion for reading books—at first fiction, then biographies, and later, professional works. It was a difficult but necessary task to discard books when I moved the 1000 miles from medical school to the city where I did residency training, and that purging of books continued every time I changed offices. I would review each title and often the table of contents before deciding if the book should accompany me to a new location. I acquired the first edition (1971) of The Fragile Alliance during my child psychiatry fellowship, and that volume traveled with me to at least 7 offices until I had the opportunity to review the latest edition.