The book illustrates the distinctive psychoanalytic contribution to mental health services for children, young people, and adults with detailed case vignettes illustrating therapeutic treatment and the ways in which staff are supported to do work that is frequently difficult and disturbing.

Psychoanalytic thinking contributes to effective mental health work on many levels, from Balint's "Flash" technique in the brief GP/patient encounter to the psychiatric medical and nursing care in secure units, where the most challenging patients need to be held. Starting with the historical...