Psychiatrists Arieti and Bemporad have authored many articles on depression, and in this book present their views in a single comprehensive format. Their psychodynamic approach to depression emphasizes the roles of cognition and volition in this psychopathology, and dovetails nicely with Beck's cognitive theory of depression and Seligman's learned helplessness model of depression. Especially interesting is the authors' treatment of the relationship between characterological attributes, on one hand, and episodes of accute depression, on the other hand. Arieti's concepts of the dominant other and dominant goal are explicated in detail. Though written primarily for psychotherapists, this book is comprehensible to anyone of average intelligence and sufficient interest.