The third edition is a continuation of a highly successful text for mental health professionals embarking on training in pyschotherapy. Since its first publication in 1979, it has carved out a niche for itself and has proved very useful to the new trainee in the field. All the chapters have been throughly updated to take into account developments in the psychotherapies since the mid 1980s. The first chapter by Jerome Frank has achieved the status of a classic and remains untouched. Two new chapters have been added - a scholarly contribution on ethical aspects of spychotherapy by the American academic Professor Byram Karasu and an authoritative chapter on behavioural psychotherapy by Dr Lynne Drummond of St George's Hospital Medical School, London.