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The mental health issues of Asian and American Indian adolescents are only fully recognized in two chapters. On the other hand, the chapters in the section on sub- stance abuse provide coverage of three different ethnic groups, and the inclusion of two chapters on inner-city youths is a definite strength.

This is a book I highly recommend for both researchers and clinicians who are interested in the role of ethnicity in research and/or practice conducted among ethnic minority adolescents.

Carol Mavkstrom-Adams

The Course of Life: IV. Adolescence. S. I. Greenspan and G. H. Pollack (Eds.). Madison, CT: International Universities Press, 1991.

This book will appeal more to the practitioner than to the researcher or teacher of adolescence. It is a primarily psychoanalytic view of the field, reminiscent of the older Caplan and Lebovici book (1969) entitled Adolescence: Psyclzosocial Perspectives. This new treatment is, unfortunately, not much more up-to-date than the Caplan and Lebovici book: Of the 296 articles cited in the first seven chapters (I stopped counting after that) only three were written after 1980 and each of them were references to the author’s own work. On the topic of identity, which gets short shrift, overall, there is only passing reference to the work of James Marcia, and none to the studies of Gerald Adams, Alan Waterman, Michael Berzonsky, etc. In a chapter on “The Pubescent Years” there is a section of “Physical changes . and psychological reactions,” wherein no mention is made of the recent work of Anne Peterson, J. Brooks-Gunn, or even of James Tanner. The only work men- tioned in this context is by psychoanalysts (none after 1977) and the data came entirely from clinical material. Although case material can be important data, I believe it should be so labelled. The title of the book, Adolescence, suggests a pre- sentation that would cover normal as well as disturbed youth. Arriving at an understanding of development exclusively, or even primarily, from a data base of pathology can be misleading. To ignore relevant research is a disservice, not only to the academic, research-oriented reader but especially to the clinican who needs a backdrop against which to examine the portrait of the disturbed adolescent. Nor is the creditibility always certain of the work that is cited. A work by Benson (1937) is cited in one chapter as evidence that “The girl becomes clumsy,” in early adoles- cence. The reference is to a novel, later a Broadway play, entitled “Junior Miss.” To examine literary stereotypes about adolescents can be an important exercise, but to use them as data without acknowledging that they are literary fictions is dis- quieting. One tends to lose faith.

It would be equally unfortunate, however, to ignore the many excellent obser- vations about adolescents in this book because they are not research based. In a chapter by Helen Bieser on “Ages Eleven to Fourteen,” the reader is treated to a description of this pre-/early adolescent period that is rivaled by few. What parent or clinical would not recognize and be comforted by the poignant observation that

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“At this age, he usually refuses physical affection from his mother and his father as childish, but the boy’s sloppiness may actually require a lot of care from the mother, which can be tolerated because it is seen as an unnecessary imposition.”

A delightful recalling of an embarrassingly familiar interchange between father and son begins a chapter by Henry Coppolillo (“Tides of Change”) in which the uneveness and apparent inconsistencies in adolescent development are explored with the help of both theory (Rapaport) and careful observation. Also in this chapter clinical observations are always labelled: “Clinically what we see . .,” “ . . clinical observation suggests . .,” “ Introspection and clinical evidence suggest . ” The reader knows from whence the data come.

In summary, it would seem fair to conclude that this book is as uneven as ado- lescence itself. It is rarely current, ignorant of much psychological research, and yet is full of excellent observations and is almost certain to provide both insight to the practitioner and hypotheses to the researcher.

John McKinney

The Provision of Primary Experience: Winnicottian Work with Children and Adolescents. Barbara Dockar-Drysdale. London Free Association Books, L12.95 (pbk). A29.50 (Hdk).

The validity and efficacy of approaches using or encouraging regression as ther- apy arouses debate and controversy. One can find adolescent units where it is made explicit that this does not form part of the approach. Sadly, as events reported in the U.K. press in 1991 showed, there are dangers that it can be used perversely as a mask for the abuse of damaged children. This collection of twenty- two papers of varying length, written between 1961 and 1989 is therefore a very welcome addition to the literature clarifying the ways in which an understanding of the successes and failures of the earliest experiences of life enable us better to describe and help children and adolescents who present severe behavioural man- agement problems.

As the title describes, Dockar-Drysdale’s work is based on Winnicott’s fomula- tions of early development. Central to this is the concept of ‘Integration’ described in 1962. Unwittingly, I think, Dockar-Drysdale assumes too much familiarity with this as a theoretical concept and fundamental aspect of healthy experience and health-giving relationships. However, I do not believe this detracts from this book’s importance but perhaps indicates the advisability in future editions of an introductory chapter to ‘translate’ Winnicott for non- psychoanalytic audience.

In describing the treatment of children with ‘The Antisocial Tendency’, Winnicott (1956) states ‘. the treatment . . . is not psychoanalysis. It is the pro- vision of child care which can be rediscovered by the child . It is the stability of the new environmental provision which gives the therapeutics’. Dockar-Drysdale describes this, using her experiences of treating children in her own home and in