The Nature of Psychotherapy

These two books dealing with psychotherapy are in sharp contrast. The first, by a P^Iosopher, was written fifty years ago and is a small book, consisting of two .Prions taken from the large volume newly translated from the German under the 'le "General Psychopathology". The second is a contemporary work written by a Poetising psychoanalyst, who is concerned with the description of levels of psycho-thFapy short of fuI1 Psychoanalysis. Following a short exposition of psychoanalytic ?0ry, he devotes the main portion of his book to technique. Jaspers' writing bridges the gap of fifty years, and the Manchester University Press J*s done a service to a reading public beyond the range of the practising psycho-papist in publishing it. Progress is made by individuals who can stand at the t eeting-point of two different systems of thought. Of Jaspers, this has been doubly fUe-As a philosopher, he described, criticised, and developed ideas from Kierkegaard !J. Nietzsche, and from his own responses he was able to create his "existenz-^?losophie". As a psychiatrist, he also made critical assessments of psychoanalytical ?. e?ry, and built many of the central ideas into his own philosophically-based Psychopathologie". In these sections, the aims and limits of psychotherapy are 175