The Use of Written Communications in Psychotherapy.

Abstract

This volume is composed of papers delivered by their authors at a symposium of the American Psychological Association, now somewhat revised and presented for a wider professional audience. Each author from his own experience and theoretical point of view presents his rationale for using other than oral communication as a basis for psychotherapeutic effort. The results for this reviewer were mixed and overlapping. This creates a need for discussion of the book in general, as well as the individual papers. In a sense, the whole volume is a tribute to the quiet pragmatism which has been felt in the psychological healing arts for the past 25 years. The prospect or possibility of respected and respectable members of the psychological community seriously suggesting other than oral therapeutic intervention at some earlier date seems inconceivable. In this sense, this volume ranks along with other more familiar and more dramatic