Psychoanalysis, and its many psychotherapeutic offshoots, has been a major influence in twentieth century cultural life. Yet dynamic psychotherapy now finds itself in grave crisis as a result of the intellectual shipwreck of its founder, Sigmund Freud. Since Freudian theory has been shown to be largely without empirical basis, what is to stop the whole psychotherapeutic edifice from collapsing into the quicksands on which it is built? In this immensely readable and entertaining overview, Anthony Stevens describes how the major schools of psychodynamic therapy grew out of the psychology of their charismatic founders and have subsequently turned into exclusive and mutually hostile rival 'sects'. Anthony Stevens argues that the best hope for the future lies in research to determine the positive therapeutic ingredients that all methods have in common. This, combined with the kind of undogmatic, open-minded humanity advocated by C.G. Jung, could lead to the adoption of a new paradigm capable of transcending the difference between them - the paradigm adopted by the new breed of 'evolutionary psychotherapists'.

Reviews
"With our stress levels zooming off the Richter scale, shrinks probably get as much trade as dentists these days. But do you know the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist, a Freudian analyst and a Jungian one - and how they might fit into our lives? Nor did I. Analyst and writer Anthony Stevens explains all this in his excellent book, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Psychotherapy. As well as setting out who does what in what way and why, Stevens goes into the backgrounds . . . . The book is fascinating and readable, though the print is too small."
Hilary Boyd, The Express..

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