This was advertised as an 8th edition book and I was sent the 7th edition. I am now having to purchase the 8th edition. This was over a $100 mistake...I am now having to go through Amazon to try to get reimbursed.

I found this book at a thrift store and liked the summaries of the various therapies that I found. Many of them were short and to the point, and said everything more concisely than some books did with more pages and words. I must admit that I did not read about all the therapies in the book, but only the ones that I liked. There is a section on the "Focusing" work of Gendlin that is excellent and gives some detail not found in his classic book in the field. While it is only a few pages long, I found them worth reading and added to my understanding of his therapy, which is the basis of much process oriented therapy to this day, as well as a meditation tool. I think the reason why the article added to the understanding is because the article is historically later than his book and he is giving his later reflections. All in all, it is a good reference book.

This is, by far, my favorite book for use in teaching a Clinical Psychology course. The most appealing component of this book is that it uses theoretical formulators or significant contributors to the perspectives presented(ie., Beck, Ellis, Rollo & May, etc.) as original authors whenever possible. There are, unfortunately, some problematics in the chapters written by others (e.g., the author of the classical psychoanalysis chapter indicating, naively, that Freud's theory was deterministic - ignoring, completely, Freud's more subjective and telic explanations of psychological phenomena and that his deterministic perspectives were more add-ons to his final theory to appease his more biologically minded contemporaries...see my website: [...]). Still, even with such provisos, I recommend this book as a good introduction to theories/perspectives in clinical psychology/psychotherapy. For a better, more comprehensive reading of the grand personality theories and psychotherapies, I HIGHLY recommend you purchase a copy of Rychlak's, _Introduction to Personality and Psychotherapy_.

This is a very thorough overview of the most popular psychotherapies today. I had to mentally prepare each time I sat down to read this book. Often times I felt the detail was unnecessary (ample detail) for the purpose of the text. However, my understanding of current psychotherapies is based on this book alone. My first Qtr of grad school/counseling/no psych background. I just got my hands on Corey, G. -- its a much easier read but, I am reading it after Corsini and Wedding. So you'll have to decide...Hope you enjoy!