The Teaching and Learning of Psychotherapy

THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF PSYCHOTHERAPY. By Rudolf Ekstein and Robert S. Wallerstein. New York, Basic Books, Inc., 1958. 334 pp. $6.50. These authors have written the first book on the process of supervision in the field of psychotherapy. This publication is the outgrowth of pioneer work done in a carefully organized manner over the past ten years at the Menninger Foundation. At the outset, the authors make the major point that ". . . we do not teach psychotherapy as a series of specific interactions, but how to carry on psychotherapeutic activity." Though in fact they have written primarily for those students and supervisors of psychotherapy who work in the framework of psychoanalytic principles, their book is oriented in such a way that it contains much of value for anyone engaged in the learning and teaching of psychotherapy. At the outset, they view the institutional setting in which early clinical teaching takes place and make thoughtful references to the complexity of the professional society in which the beginning student of psychotherapy finds himself. They depict this as "The Clinical Rhombus" with hospital administrator, psychotherapy supervisor, the student of psychotherapy, and the patient at the apices of this geometrical figure with numerous paths of interaction available. The major section of the book is devoted to the development of a dynamic understanding of the parallel processes of treatment and supervision. The authors report selected supervisory and treatment hours in sufficient detail for the reader to understand the unfolding and development of the essential themes. They successfully deal with issues and dilemmas of how supervision is related to psychotherapy and remind us that in both we are dealing with affect-laden relationships in which a wide range of human emotion may be revealed and explored. They make a point of suggesting that the supervisor not see his student as a collection of startling psychopathology but as a person in a learning situation who makes use of his characteristic patterns of coming to grips with new and sometimes very threatening experiences. The supervisory methods described here make much use of written interview material turned in to the supervisor for his study prior to the supervisory sessions. Though one may question the value of this particular routine, this procedure does not imply a static or didactic teaching situation. Rather, these notes are used as a springboard for discussion of treatment and supervision. In the closing section, they discuss the evaluation of supervision by student and supervisor and introduce questions related to the entire problem of evaluating a student's progress in learning and the selection of students who may have promise as psychotherapists. A very excellent and comprehensive "Guide to the Literature" is appended. This volume should be read by all students and teachers who have serious interest in the learning and teaching of psychotherapy. It should provide many ideas for other workers to study teaching and learning in a wide variety of clinical settings. EDWIN C. WOOD