Overview

Storr’s The Art of Psychotherapy first appeared in 1979 and became an instant classic. After Storr’s death, a third edition was rewritten and revised by Jeremy Holmes, and this fourth edition is a further up-to-date iteration. Storr (1920–2001) and Holmes, both medical psychoanalytic psychotherapists, are ‘elders’ in the world of psychotherapy. Their eclectic, experienced and cultured voices offer students and psychotherapy practitioners clinical wisdom hard to find elsewhere. Their book expounds in a very practical way the issues entailed in setting up and maintaining a psychotherapeutic relationship and practice: how to introduce oneself, arrange one’s consulting room, establish a contract, when and how to make ‘interpretations'. The second half of the book deals with more general and often problematic issues, including how to align therapy in the light of diagnosis, working with ‘difficult’ patients, therapy termination, and the life course of a therapist, ending with a valedictory overview. In this fourth edition, Holmes has added a chapter on the scientific validation of psychotherapy, sections on tele- and e-therapy, non-binary gender and sexual identities and the impact of race and class on the therapeutic relationship. This engaging, accessible and profound book is essential reading for psychotherapists, counsellors, psychiatrists and mental health practitioners in training or practice.

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9781032548715

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Reviews

‘Want to know about contemporary psychotherapy practice - what to do, why to do it, when to do it, and how to do it? This new edition of a seminal text is for you. Originally aimed at those starting out as a psychotherapist, the book remains first choice of primers on psychotherapy practice. If you have read it before, read it again! It is as new and fresh as it ever was. Practical as ever, this new addition skilfully intertwines the wisdom and art of old with the science and research of the new. Clinical examples, many delightfully pithy and humourous, enliven the discussion and brilliantly foreground the humanity of psychotherapy.’ Anthony Bateman, FRCPsych, Consultant to Anna Freud Centre London; Visiting Professor, University College London; Honorary Professor of Psychotherapy, Copenhagen University. ‘Holmes is an inspired choice to update this classic work! The Art of Psychotherapy was always a useful book, but it seems that Holmes has made it more valuable by making it more accessible and more rooted in everyday psychiatry. It will obviously be a great book for trainees in psychiatry and psychotherapy, but equally useful for interested lay people who may be thinking about exploring themselves in psychodynamic psychotherapy. It is readable, and refreshing in its honesty and kindliness. Congratulations on a superb updated edition; especially about on-line working, the great debate du jour.’ Gwen Adshead is forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She is qualified as a group analyst and trained in mindfulness based cognitive therapy and mentalisation based therapy. For the least 30 years, she has worked as a therapist with violence perpetrators in secure hospitals and prisons. Gwen has written and co-authored many academic papers and books; chiefly in the field of attachment theory, personality disorder and ethics in mental health. Her most recent work The Devil You Know is co-authored with Eileen Horne.

‘Want to know about contemporary psychotherapy practice – what to do, why to do it, when to do it, and how to do it? This new edition of a seminal text is for you. Originally aimed at those starting out as a psychotherapist, the book remains first choice of primers on psychotherapy practice. If you have read it before, read it again! It is as new and fresh as it ever was. Practical as ever, this new addition skilfully intertwines the wisdom and art of old with the science and research of the new. Clinical examples, many delightfully pithy and humourous, enliven the discussion and brilliantly foreground the humanity of psychotherapy.’ Anthony Bateman, FRCPsych, Consultant to Anna Freud Centre London; Visiting Professor, University College London; Honorary Professor of Psychotherapy, Copenhagen University ‘Holmes is an inspired choice to update this classic work! The Art of Psychotherapy was always a useful book, but it seems that Holmes has made it more valuable by making it more accessible and more rooted in everyday psychiatry. It will obviously be a great book for trainees in psychiatry and psychotherapy, but equally useful for interested lay people who may be thinking about exploring themselves in psychodynamic psychotherapy. It is readable, and refreshing in its honesty and kindliness. Congratulations on a superb updated edition; especially about on-line working, the great debate du jour.’ Gwen Adshead is forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She is qualified as a group analyst and trained in mindfulness based cognitive therapy and mentalisation based therapy. For the least 30 years, she has worked as a therapist with violence perpetrators in secure hospitals and prisons. Gwen has written and co-authored many academic papers and books; chiefly in the field of attachment theory, personality disorder and ethics in mental health. Her most recent work The Devil You Know is co-authored with Eileen Horne

‘Want to know about contemporary psychotherapy practice - what to do, why to do it, when to do it, and how to do it? This new edition of a seminal text is for you. Originally aimed at those starting out as a psychotherapist, the book remains first choice of primers on psychotherapy practice. If you have read it before, read it again! It is as new and fresh as it ever was. Practical as ever, this new addition skilfully intertwines the wisdom and art of old with the science and research of the new. Clinical examples, many delightfully pithy and humourous, enliven the discussion and brilliantly foreground the humanity of psychotherapy.’ Anthony Bateman, FRCPsych, Consultant to Anna Freud Centre London; Visiting Professor, University College London; Honorary Professor of Psychotherapy, Copenhagen University.

Author Information

Jeremy Holmes, MD, FRCPsych, is an Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter. His books include John Bowlby and Attachment Theory (2014), Attachment in Therapeutic Practice (2017) and The Brain has a Mind of its Own (2020). Gardening, Green politics and grand-parenting now parallel his lifelong devotion to psychoanalytic psychotherapy practice and attachment theory. Anthony Storr, MD, FRCPsych, (1920–2001), was an eminent analytical psychologist, psychiatrist, author and broadcaster. After analytic practice in London, he became Oxford’s first NHS Medical Psychotherapist. In a rare combination, he held Fellowships of Oxford’s Green College, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Society of Literature.

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