I picked up this book eager to read some of Davanloo's transcripts, the founder of ISTDP. He did not write all the chapters but I thoroughly enjoyed the ones he did. It gave me a glimpse of how he worked and built his theory. He leads his sessions with surgical precision. Nothing escapes his eye and he addresses defenses relentlessly until it is yielding the desired result. I did not enjoy as much the chapters by other authors; some where about family therapy and ISTDP or crisis work with ISTDP. It felt like reading disjointed research papers trying to tie themselves under the umbrella of ISTDP.