Dr Malan’s iconic book is firmly established as a classic psychotherapy textbook and it remains extremely popular. The second edition of this highly individual and fascinating text brings theory and practice up to date, while keeping the essential character of the book unchanged.

The book offers an invaluable description of dynamic psychotherapy and the theory on which it is based. Through the use of numerous case studies and clinical stories, the book begins by illustrating everyday mental mechanisms, moving on to a discussion of some of the most profound problems experienced by human beings. Practical applications of theory through different techniques are described, from the straightforward to the handling of some of the most complex and dangerous situations likely to be encountered in psychotherapy. Part of the book’s unique value is derived from the way in which it distils from psychoanalytic theory the core of scientific truth.

Covers the principles of dynamic psychotherapy from the most elementary to some of the most profound
Always illustrates these with true case studies told as they happened
Gives full interpretations and analysis
Beautifully written and highly accessible for anyone with a deep interest in people.

New material for the second edition includes: the relation with the mother in the male Oedipus complex, disturbances in the relation with siblings, masochism, and the ‘compulsion to repeat’.
This is an important resource for all psychotherapists of any degree of experience, psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, primary care physicians, mental health nurses and anyone with an interest in the human mind. For psychotherapists in training it remains an outstanding textbook.