David Livingstone Smith is Director of the New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology, University of New England, USA.

"Psychoanalysis in Focus" is a much-needed introduction to the major criticisms of psychoanalysis as a theory and as a practice. THe book encourage psychoanalysts, psychotherapiests and counsellors to adopt a more balanced view of their own discipline and aims to help students engage in critical debate during their training.

Outlining the main criticisms from outside hte world of psychotherapy, Dvaid Livingstone Smith explores the contentions of philosophers such as Karl Popper and Adolf Grunbaum. He assesses the scientific credibility of psychoanalysis, explaining the difficulty in obtaining evidence, using the experimental methods of research favoured by the scientific community. Against this he sets the opposing view that psychoanalysis is not, and should not strive to be, a science and highlights the philosophical and ethical shortcomings which accompaning this view.

The book also examines contemporary issues facing practitioners and the validity of key psychoanalytic concepts such as "the unconscious", "free association", "transference", and "countertransference".