Ideology concealed? The politics of Philip Cushman.

Comments that in P. Cushman's (see record 1991-17982-001) critique of D. Stern's (1985) book on the interpersonal world of the human infant, although Cushman in his criticism of decontextualized psychology follows the postmodern dictum of refusing all transcendental and universally binding principles, Cushman's approach to social constructionism betrays a lack of reflexive understanding of the concept of contextuality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural competence and psychotherapy: Applying anthropologically informed conceptions of culture.

The authors apply two contemporary notions of culture to advance the conceptual basis of cultural competence in psychotherapy: Kleinman's (1995) definition of culture as what is at stake in local, social worlds, and Mattingly and Lawlor's (2001) concept of shared narratives between practitioners and patients. The authors examine these cultural constructs within a clinical case of an immigrant family caring for a young boy with an autism-spectrum disorder. Their analysis suggests that the socially based model of culture and the concept of shared narratives have the potential to broaden and enrich the definition of cultural competence beyond its current emphasis on the presumed cultural differences of specific racial and ethnic minority groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy.

Reviews the books, Relational theory and the practice of psychotherapy by Paul L. Wachtel (2009). Paul Wachtel has done it again. After writing for many years about integrating psychoanalytic, behavioral and family approaches to psychotherapy in addition to cultural issues, Wachtel has returned to his psychoanalytic origins to explicate his ideas about cyclical psychodynamics from the perspective of contemporary relational psychoanalysis. This book is an excellent way for psychotherapists unfamiliar with how psychoanalysis has changed since Freud to familiarize themselves with recent developments from a writer who does not get lost in the jargon that distances many who find psychoanalytic language lacking in clarity. Psychoanalysts will find some critiques of traditional views and expansions of ways of looking at the clinical situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revealed, concealed, congealed, curdled: A reply to Pomichalek, Lamb, and Denner.

Replies to M. Pomichalek's (see record 1992-19269-001), S. Lamb's (see record 1992-19263-001), and B. Denner's (see record 1992-19257-001) remarks on P. Cushman's comments (see record 1991-17982-001) on D. Stern's (1985) study. Cushman defends constructionist research by maintaining that it can acknowledge and interpret ideology and thereby the moral framework in which the study is embedded. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Klaus Holzkamp and the rise and decline of German critical psychology.

This history of German Critical Psychology focuses on the works of its most significant representative, Klaus Holzkamp (1927–1995), and reconstructs the development of his ideas, critiques, and results. For historical–systematic reasons his work is divided into a precritical period (until 1968), a critical–emancipatory period (1968–1972), a critical–conceptual period (1973–1983), and a subject–scientific period (1984–1995). Social movements and internal problems of traditional psychology are identified as factors in the rise of his psychology, whereas the decline of Critical Psychology in the 1980s and 1990s is attributed to social developments, limitations of a systematic–foundational framework, and the emergence of alternative critical approaches. Despite these problems the article shows that Holzkamp is an eminent theoretical psychologist who has made significant contributions to psychological knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The moral construction of the self.

Social constructionist theory has been criticized as being relativistic. This article addresses this criticism and draws out conclusions for the theory and for psychotherapy. It is suggested that a nonrelativistic basis for the self is its moral constitution and that people need to trust, make promises, and follow through on obligations in order to be in the society that is constructing them. These moral and ethical constituents of the socially constructed self are historically necessary without being universal. One important praxis affected by this conclusion is psychotherapy which, because its articulation of the constituents of self also constitutes them, becomes a moral and political praxis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On supervision: Reflections of a Latino psychologist.

The clinical supervisory relationship can be used to help psychotherapy trainees develop a more integrated sense of a multicultural and professional self. In this paper, the author shares some of his own training experiences in supervision and their influence on his supervision style. Examples from supervisory sessions are given to demonstrate how issues of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation can be used to advance both the supervision and the treatment. Candid discussions around the transferential and countertransferential issues in the supervision and the treatment can improve the supervisee’s capacity to integrate cultural identity into the developing sense of professional self as a therapist. This process also contributes to the clinical understanding of the person being treated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Between conviction and uncertainty: Philosophical guidelines for practicing psychotherapists.

Reviews the book, Between conviction and uncertainty: Philosophical guidelines for practicing psychotherapists by Jerry N. Downing (see record 2000-08722-000). In this book, the author aims to provide a meta-analysis of the array of theories available to the practicing psychotherapist: that is, to provide a "theory about theories" in the hope of giving the psychotherapist a guide for better understanding what it is that goes on in therapy. Downing begins by working through several basic questions. First, he considers what therapists actually know about therapy. Downing concludes that theories of psychotherapy are likely to continue to evade scientific proof, mainly because they do not easily lend themselves to disproof. This bleak view of what we actually know about what we do in psychotherapy leads Downing to reflect on what it is that we could possibly discover or know about therapy, and here his inquiry turns epistemological. Downing suggests that therapists are guided by a kind of epistemology in action. That is, therapists may best be described as loosely following an organizing scheme throughout a therapy. Downing refers to these six schemes as lived modes of knowing. Downing then discusses each of the six, providing illustrations of what they might mean in practice. Downing presents a plausible account of what may occur in therapy and of how many therapists may work. However, his argument seems to be unnecessarily drawn out. Unfortunately, rather than lend support and inform, the breadth of topics and issues obscures his project. And, beneath it all, we are left wondering what we actually know about psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The oceanic feeling and a sea change: Historical challenges to reductionist attitudes to religion and spirit from within psychoanalysis.

Three waves of challenges may be perceived from within psychoanalysis to its reductionist attitude to religion and spirit. These historical challenges from within psychoanalysis are an important context for reading the many papers now being published on spirituality and psychotherapy, and increasingly, spirituality and psychoanalysis. The 1st wave began with some of Freud's contemporaries, among them his friend, the psychoanalyst and pastor Oscar Pfister; the Nobel Laureate Romain Rolland, and the poet T. S. Eliot. Challenges continued after Freud's death: In Britain from psychoanalysts such as Rickman and Guntrip, and in America initially by the European immigrants, Erikson and Fromm. British independent psychoanalysts initiated what may be considered to be the 3rd wave, whose momentum is now swelling to a sea change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Culture, psychotherapy and counseling: Critical and integrative perspectives.

Reviews the book, Culture, psychotherapy and counseling: Critical and integrative perspectives (see record 2006-00543-000) edited by Lisa Hoshmand. Lisa Tsoi Hoshmand points out in a new book she has edited, Culture, psychotherapy and counseling: Critical and integrative perspectives, framing the culture concept in this way trivializes and distorts the significance of "the cultural," both for psychotherapists and for psychologists more generally. In this volume, Hoshmand and her contributors both explicate and perform a much broader understanding of what culture is, and of the ways in which it inescapably does (and should) influence psychotherapeutic and counseling theory and practice. Most notably, she highlights the ways that personal history, sociopolitical context, social change, and globalization all influence an individual's cultural identity; as a corollary of this, she asserts, "the internalized culture and identity of a given individual cannot be presumed on the basis of ethnic origin and cultural tradition". In spite of the limitation, virtually all of the chapters blend personal history, theoretical reflection and clinical material in interesting ways that enhance the reader's appreciation of the many contexts that surround and infuse the therapeutic encounter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The talking cures: The psychoanalyses and the psychotherapies.

Reviews the book, The talking cures: The psychoanalyses and the psychotherapies by Robert Wallerstein (see record 1995-98727-000). This book is not a book for reading, it is a compendium, nearly 600 pages long, for consulting. Each of its 25 chapters is a survey of a particular concept or controversy involved in the history of definitions of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Each contains a potted minihistory or two or three, many digests of relevant articles and books, reports on symposia and conferences and special issues of journals, long quotations cut and pasted in by computer, summaries of already published summaries (so many of which were written by Wallerstein that this volume is, in effect, his collected articles abstracted). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Moving psychotherapy: Theory and application of Pesso System/Psychomotor therapy.

Reviews the book, Moving psychotherapy: Theory and application of Pesso System/Psychomotor therapy by Albert Pesso and John Crandell (see record 1991-98008-000) . How many schools of psychotherapy are there? 250-300 schools, depending on one's definition? The present text, apparently, adds one new school of psychotherapy. This book is a third publication expounding the ideas of Pesso. The school's title name is: (PS/P) Pesso System/Psychotherapy and has its roots in its founder (Pesso) who is convinced that he has discovered a method of integrating the mind (psyche) and the body. The latter is the "motor." Pesso was a dancer—hence the feature of movement (motor). In 1969 and 1973 Pesso had two books published in which he attempted to explain his system of psychotherapy. The present book furthers the former texts, adding new ideas. Moreover, numerous authors contribute to what they believe are the benefits of PS/P. The book tends to suggest a broad readership ranging from beginning counselors to seasoned therapists looking for something new. In brief it appears as though Pesso and his followers believe they have hit a therapeutic gold mine. According to this reviewer, they haven't. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychotherapy after Kohut: A textbook of self psychology.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy after Kohut: A textbook of self psychology by Ronald R. Lee and J. Colby Martin (see record 1991-98948-000). More than a decade since Kohut's death, the volume of writing in the field of self psychology continues to expand, testifying to the stimulating challenge of his theories not only to mental health professionals in all disciplines but to those in the humanities as well. The latest contribution, Psychotherapy after Kohut: A textbook of self psychology, is a welcome arrival. Each chapter opens with a paragraph outlining teaching goals and closes with a summary and suggested readings for the following chapter. Lee and Martin provide a review of classical Freudian theory, brief excerpts of the classic cases from which it was derived, the principal early controversies, and a new view of Ferenczi's contributions. Lee and Martin provide a thoughtful, carefully reasoned, and comprehensive synthesis of the work of those writers who in their opinion have enhanced and expanded the concepts of self psychology and those who deny the significance of self-psychological concepts for psychoanalysis or psychotherapy or seek to demonstrate that the ideas are not new. Informative and challenging, Psychotherapy after Kohut, with its integration and synthesis of many points of view, is a contribution to the field of textbooks. Readers will find much to inform and strengthen their understanding of psychotherapy after Kohut. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy: The humanistic (and effective) treatment.

Although it is well established that psychotherapy is remarkably effective, the change process in psychotherapy is not well understood. Psychotherapy is compared with medicine and cultural healing practices to argue that critical aspects of psychotherapy involve human processes that are used in religious, spiritual, and cultural healing practices. A model of psychotherapy is presented that stipulates various aspects that involve uniquely human characteristics. Central to this model is patient acquisition of an adaptive explanation of his or her difficulties. Finally, the research evidence for this model is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Projectuality versus eventuality: Sullivan, the (ambivalent) intentionalist.

H. S. Sullivan's “Toward a Psychiatry of Peoples” is a difficult-to-penetrate tour-de-force on intentionality. In it, Sullivan walks the persistent reader through two aspects of what makes us human: Goal-directedness (labeled by Sullivan the need for satisfaction and here “projectuality”), and its derailment by interpersonal forces (referred to by Sullivan as the need for security and herein as “eventuality”). The tension between projectuality and eventuality gives rise to the self-system: A defensive self-organization aimed at maintaining self-esteem through the prevention of caregiver's anxiety. Herein, a link is made, to the best of my knowledge for the first time, between Sullivan's intentionalism, existential writings such as those of Rollo May, and D. W. Winnicott's notion of the true and false self. Implications to psychotherapy integration are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of psychotherapy: The perennial controversy.

Reviews a number of important reviews of research on outcome in psychotherapy and evaluates the various critiques of these reviews and the issues involved. Although a number of important limitations in both existing research and the reviews of research are indicated, it is claimed that the different evaluations of the effectiveness of psychotherapy are influenced in part by the personal views of the individuals involved. It is argued that what is needed to help resolve past and current controversies is research that leads to a better understanding of the variables that produce change. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brief psychodynamic and cognitive therapy regarding acute treatment.

Cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy either in their pure forms or possibly synthesized as a form of eclectic therapy appear to be the 2 most commonly utilized forms of psychotherapy, both having levels of empirical support. As the majority of outpatient therapy in America appears to be very brief, 1 reasonable assumption is that treatment is often sought for resolution of acute episodes. A relevant question for practice and clinical training is what are the potential implications with brief psychodynamic and cognitive therapy for this type of treatment? This brief commentary will address the following: (a) the current general differential empirical status of each approach; (b) distinctions between acute treatment and traditional brief therapy and current common treatment patterns; and (c) the general clinical mechanisms for change for each approach and their potential implications regarding acute treatment and clinical supervision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

试论余秋雨散文的文化意蕴

余秋雨散文作为一种文化散文与学者散文,最有价值之处便是其丰厚的文化意蕴。而其中最主要的就是对文化的阐释,他立足于追述人生真谛和人生苦旅,探寻文人人生的出路与归宿,更从民族、国家、历史的宏观角度对文化作了构架与关切,从而建立了一座具有丰富内涵的“精神道场”。     

Matching the therapist's interpersonal stance to clients' characteristics: Contributions from systematic eclectic psychotherapy.

Briefly describes the systematic eclectic psychotherapy approach by outlining its 4 levels of analysis and decisions: predisposing client variables, treatment contexts, relationship variables, and specific techniques. Within this model, the therapeutic stance is seen not as a static quality representing a theoretical model but as an integral part of a general plan of intervention tailored to a specific client, based on his/her motivational arousal, coping style, and reactance potential. The therapeutic stance comprehends the therapist's degree of effectiveness, formality, and self disclosure, the focus on behavioral or conscious levels, and the emphasis on symptoms or conflicts. A case illustration is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)