When I read a new book about any deep feeling therapy I always look into the index to see if there are references to Arthur Janov and other innovators in the primal field. I find none in this book. The author pays homage to Fritz Perls, Thomas Szasz, Carl Rogers and a few others but fails to acknowledge her predecessors in the primal therapy field.

After finishing the book, I had the impression that Dr. Schaef never really described the work she does or exactly what happens in her therapy sessions, so I read the book a second time, thinking that perhaps she did explain, but that I somehow overlooked her explanation. Even then, I kept waiting and expecting a better explanation of her work and how it differs from other regressive deep feeling therapies but it never came. She does mention, however, that she is preparing a new major work describing the implications of her work. Hopefully, she will include a better description about what her feels her new non therapy is all about and if she thinks it is related to primal and if so, how.

Her deep process therapy is done only in group settings which she calls intensives. At last a familiar word! The author writes a lot about the Living in Process and Life in Process but it's really hard to get a handle about what she is saying about those two subjects. That's the complaint I have about a lot of the second half of the book.

After reading other books dealing with a kindred therapy, a person knowledgeable of primal therapy will assuredly have a feeling of having well understood what the author is saying. But I did not have such a feeling even after the second reading.

Hey, maybe it's me. Maybe I have a problem with her style of writing. Dr. Shaef says that Deep Process Therapy is not psychotherapy. Well then, what is it? I guess I'll have to wait until her next book to find out.