Personal disorder and family life

by Peter Lomas

The family is the focal point of Personal Disorder and Family Life, a series of Lomas' collected papers written between 1959 and 1996. Although he concentrates on the family, Lomas covers a variety of themes. "An Interpretation of Modern Obstetric Practice" explores the effect of the maternity ward on the psychology of the mother. He also critiques contemporary psychotherapeutic theory, practice, and teaching, in particular the excessive preoccupation with technique at the cost of spontaneity. Psychotherapy, he believes, can only be properly understood in the context of morality. Lomas has produced a book at the crest of new thinking on the family as an organizing premise. As such, it will be of interest to professionals in the fields of psychoanalysis, analytically oriented psychotherapy, and individual or family counseling, as well as general readers.