I thought this book would be a neat little overview of contemporary psychotherapy - modern theories and practices - but I was mistaken. The title of this book should be "Foundations of Psychoanalytic Therapy", because that's about all it covers. Even when discussing other forms of psychotherapy (e.g. cognitive therapy, the contribution of neuroscience to psychotherapy), Horrocks does so VERY narrowly and from a PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE, always connecting back to psychoanalytic ideas - for example, he uses psychoanalytic terms such as "neurotic" and "the Unconscious" and dreams throughout the whole book, not just the psychoanalysis chapter, as though they have a shared valid meaning/importance in all areas of psychotherapy! He does not look at how psychotherapy can be applied to patients diagnosed with particular disorders either... as aforementioned, he uses vague terms like the "neurotic" patient or the "severely disturbed" patient. What value have such terms? They are certainly not diagnostic! Not outside of psychoanalysis, anyway!

Overall, this book is very biased; to state that this book is an overview of the theories and practices of the average contemporary psychotherapist is incorrect and misleading; rather, it is an overview of the theories and practices of ONE psychotherapist - Roger Horrocks, the author. This book gives the impression that Horrocks, as a therapist, is "stuck in his ways", and this is not a fair nor accurate representation of the modern, continually evolving, research-based psychotherapies.

In summary, if you are looking for a concise introduction to the theories and practices of modern evidence-based psychotherapies, then look elsewhere. Please. If you are a Freud- and/or Jung-hugger, then you will love this book!