Psychotherapy: Indications and Outcomes

From our regular book review column.

This volume is a compendium of papers first presented at the 86th annual meeting of the American Psychopathological Association, held February 29 to March 2, 1996, in New York City. Its stated purpose is to review the status of psychotherapy in the 1990s, emphasizing existing evidence of its efficacy and of those underlying mechanisms that are related to outcome, both positive and negative. The principal authors are all leaders in the field of psychotherapy research, and the book certainly succeeds in providing the reader with a level of understanding about the current status of that field. Taking the book as a whole, the citations are extensive. Because of publication delays, however, the research cited is generally no more current than 1996.