TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. prospect of a journey 2. traveler makes ready for the journey 3. guide makes preparations as well 4. guide must know and the traveler must trust the vessel 5. travelers from a bond and begin their journey 6. traveler discovers the rewards and hazards of the journey 7. each journey is new for the guide as well as the traveler 8. though the travelers stop, the journey stretches ahead 9. the journey over, the guide reflects.
In the landmark volume, THE PSYCHOANALYTIC PROCESS, Joseph Weiss presented a bold, original theory of the therapeutic process. Now, in HOW PSYCHOTHERAPY WORKS, Weiss extends his powerful theory and focuses on its clinical applications, often challenging many familiar ideas about the psychotherapeutic process. Weiss' theory, which is supported by formal, empirical research, assumes that psychopathology stems from unconscious, pathogenic beliefs that the patient acquires by inference from early traumatic experiences. He suffers unconsciously from these beliefs and the feelings of guilt, shame, and remorse that they engender, and he is powerfully motivated unconsciously to change them. According to Weiss's theory, the patient exerts considerable control over unconscious mental life, and he makes and carries out plans for working with the therapist to change his pathogenic beliefs. He works to disprove these beliefs by testing them with the therapist. The theory derives its clinical power not only from its empirical origin and closeness to observation, and also from Weiss's cogent exposition of how to infer, from the patient's history and behavior in treatment, what the patient is trying to accomplish and how the therapist may help. By focusing on fundamental processes, Weiss's observations challenge several current therapeutic dichotomies--"supportive versus uncovering," "interactive versus interpretive," and "relational versus analytic." Written in simple, direct language, Weiss demonstrates how to uncover the patient's unconscious plan and how the therapist can help the patient to carry out his plans by passing the patient's tests. He includes many examples of actual treatment sessions, which serve to make his theory clear and usable. The chapters include highly original views about the patient's motivations, the role of affect in the patient's mental life, and the therapist's basic task. The book also contains chapters on how to pass the patient's tests, and how to use interpretation with the patient. Dr. Weiss also provides a powerful theory of dreams and demonstrates how dreams can be utilized in clinical practice. This distinguished volume is a major contribution that will profoundly affect the way one conceptualizes and practices therapy. Theoreticians, investigators, and clinicians alike will find it enlightening reading.
For all those engaged in psychotherapy practice, regardless of modality or approach, the goal of this book is to provide a framework and method for thinking about their work that allows for critical reflection on their own successes and disappointments, and on the similarities and differences among their own and other practitioners’ work with different clients. The authors use a novel "common factors" approach, based on the idea that some form of development is the outcome of all effective psychotherapy, despite other differences that may exist. While most existing psychotherapy research focuses on treatment outcomes, primarily in terms of symptom reduction, this book offers an alternative research approach that systematically tracks the psychotherapy process itself, and describes each case’s unique developmental outcome. In particular, Basseches & Mascolo focus on the questions of what kinds of therapeutic resources therapists are offering to their clients and whether and how clients are able to make use of these resources in the service of their own development. The goal is to provide a descriptive framework that can be used to appreciate the highly varied ways in which particular therapists tailor their work to unique clients’ developmental needs, while at the same time offering a prescription of a more rigorous method for recognizing and correcting the problem when a particular therapist’s way of working is not serving the client well. Ideally, this type of process-focused research will complement existing outcome research, and be more likely than further symptom-reduction studies to result in the improvement of overall psychotherapy success rates.
and knowledge, and as a possible way to illuminate change processes in psychotherapy. Today, developmental researchers and neuroscientists increasingly locate keys to psychological health and development in the earliest interactions between mother and infant." "This book, which consists of significant papers by the BCPSG, traces the group's contributions to psychoanalytic topics of note, including; the location of the implicit, the creation of meaning, the moment-by-moment clinical process, and the subjective experience of the therapist. The book also includes new introductions to selected chapters, which provide background on the original intent and reception of each article." --Book Jacket.
This book describes an encompassing modeling approach to psychotherapy, created with the most recent research in the field. Therapeutic interventions are staged within a therapist-client relationship ('alliance'), and become effective by the interplay of deterministic ('causation') and stochastic ('chance') forces. The authors use a Fokker-Planck approach complemented by a structural-mathematical framework from complexity theory. Chapters present statistical tools, which can be applied to analyze the differing time series that depict therapeutic processes. Chapters include examples of how to use these tools within research. The approach adopted in the book – contemporary psychotherapy terminology combined with a systems-theoretical model and algorithms for quantitative psychotherapy research – has the potential to become the new benchmark in psychotherapy. The Process of Psychotherapy is an informative and sophisticated resource for all levels of students, from undergraduate through post-doctoral studies, in the fields of psychology, cognitive psychology, and psychotherapy.
The concept of self for many psychotherapists has alluring appeal that conceals a haunting paradox. Self-Relations in the Psychotherapy Process examines the root of this paradox: How can therapy that is predicated on the notion of the self as firmly bound and highly individuated succeed when this concept is being challenged by the postmodern view of the self as much more fluid and complex? If we accept that the self is an ever-changing social and historical construction, how do we alter our approach to understanding disorder and change?
The Change Process in Psychotherapy During Troubling Times invites readers to consider what it is psychotherapists do that leads to change. The book highlights different theoretical approaches, questions old paradigms, and illustrates the change process when working with people facing a range of life challenges such as the survivors of childhood trauma, refugees, and people dealing with traumatic loss. Moving between consideration of micro-moments when working with individual clients and bigger questions about how to promote change in the face of current world problems, it addresses issues that touch us all. At the same time, the book acknowledges the unprecedented challenges in today’s world such as the pace of change, the thousands of displaced people who seek refuge in other countries, the illness and loss caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and the impact of climate change on lifestyles and the environment. The book presents a topical consideration of the relevance of therapeutic assumptions, theories, and practices to current global crises. With the breadth of presenting issues considered and the examples of a variety of creative approaches supporting change, the book will be useful to psychotherapists in practice and in training working in a range of settings with different populations. It will also be of interest to others working in the helping professions.
This book draws on the author's half century of experience in teaching, consulting with, and supervising psychotherapists throughout the world. He begins with the premise that the field has become too preoccupied with information: collecting information from the client and then feeding that information back to the client in different forms. The author then explains how and why shifting away from information gathering to attending to what is actually happening in the therapy room increases the effectiveness of the therapeutic interaction.
This book provides readers with essential information on the foundations of psychotherapy research, and on its applications to the study of both psychotherapy process and outcome. The aim is to stimulate a reflection on these issues in a way that will benefit researchers and clinicians, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, at different levels and from different perspectives. Accordingly, the book presents a balanced mix of chapters summarizing the state of the art in the field from different viewpoints and covering innovative topics and perspectives, reflecting some of the most established traditions and, at the same time, emerging approaches in the field in several countries. The contributors, who were invited from among the experts in our national and international professional networks, also represent a healthy mix of leading figures and young researchers. The first part of the book addresses a number of fundamental issues in psychotherapy research at a historical, philosophical, and theoretical level. The second part of the book is concerned with research on psychotherapy processes; in this regard, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are given equal consideration in order to reflect the growing relevance of the latter. The book’s third and last part examines research on psychotherapy outcomes, primarily focusing on quantitative approaches. Offering a balanced mix of perspectives, approaches and topics, the book represents a valuable tool for anyone interested in psychotherapy research.
