Compassion. : the core value that animates psychotherapy /

Lewin must be a warm and trustworthy man; his book certainly portrays him as such. He argues that a therapist must be compassionate first, last, and always for therapy to be effective. His arguments are largely personal and nonempirical, based on his experiences and the experiences of others. These impressions are presented as just that. Even so, Lewin manages to flesh out the notion that effective therapists must first be effective human beings. Although this notion is probably correct as an admonition to be compassionate and accurate, the task of how to become human and compassionate is not defined. Perhaps this notion cannot be defined, but this reviewer believes that Carl Rogers and others (Allen Ivey and Jerry Authier) have focused on the human characteristics that define the therapeutic relationship and how they may be learned. Lewin's book is suitable for college libraries, but they first need books that are not only compassionate but empirically based. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty. M. W. York University of New Haven