The Art of the Obvious

Rosenfeld here reconstructs a series of training seminars he and renowned child psychiatrist Bettelheim ( The Uses of Enchantment ) held with psychotherapists in the late 1970s and early 1980s at Stanford University Medical School. As director of training in child psychiatry there, Rosenfeld enlisted the help of the retired Bettelheim to enhance the students' understanding of psychoanalytically oriented therapy. Starting from single cases presented by students (all of whom were practicing therapists), the five free-ranging and substantial chapters explore such issues as the first interview, transference and counter-transference. Particularly moving are Bettelheim's observations on one young psychiatrist's work with an anxious elderly physician. Bettelheim, who died in 1990, demonstrates unwavering, compassionate attention to the individual under discussion, consistently rejecting quick, generalizing diagnoses and urging his listeners to seek out each patient's uniqueness. Rosenfeld is now director of psychiatric services at the Jewish Child Care Association in New York City. BOMC and QPB alternates. (Jan.)