Review of Documenting psychotherapy: Essentials for mental health practitioners.

Reviews the book, Documenting psychotherapy: Essentials for mental health practitioners by Mary E. Moline, George T. Williams, and Kenneth M. Austin (see record 1997-36283-000). Despite the newness of the field, writing about treatment documentation is already a daunting task. Psychotherapy documentation is controlled by both state law and by ethics codes of the various disciplines involved in treatment. Thus, it is not surprising that Documenting Psychotherapy is an uneven book, with significant gaps in the text. The book is divided into four parts, plus a large number of appendices. Each chapter contains brief summaries of selected court cases that highlight the chapter issues. In the first part, Moline et al. cover the importance of record-keeping, giving good arguments in favor of keeping comprehensive records. They address issues of confidentiality in this part as well. Part II outlines what information should go into the record. Part III addresses safety issues and Part IV addresses miscellaneous issues, including treatment of minors, client access to records, and retention of records. Overall, Moline et al. have made a good attempt at an overwhelming project, but they fell victim to the volume of material in the field. Their book gives a good overview of ethical and legal issues in record-keeping, and may be helpful to inexperienced practitioners. Their interpretation of specific legal issues is very good and very clear. However, for those practitioners who are facing specific questions about how to document psychotherapy, how to respond to requests for information, or how to deal with legal issues, this book cannot replace a clear knowledge of one's state and discipline regulations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Interpretation and interaction: Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy?

Reviews the book, Interpretation and interaction: Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy? by Jerome D. Oremland (see record 1991-98021-000). This theoretically provocative and clinically substantive monograph cogently addresses the important and complex issues concerning the relationship between psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The essentials of each are examined in terms of the relative contribution of the two variables entering into all therapeutic endeavors--interpretation and interaction. The author's thesis stems from his viewing Merton Gill's seminal work distinguishing psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as too inclusive. There are minor editorial mistakes involving spelling errors, typos, and omissions (e.g., Chapter 6 is not listed in the contents). Some readers may be put off by the author's tendency to make unequivocal and authoritative pronouncements as well as the psychoanalytically institutional context for many of the observations. Minor limitations notwithstanding, this is an important and easily read, integrative work that advances psychoanalytic psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The technique of psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, The technique of psychotherapy by Lewis R. Wolberg (1954). Noting the dearth of concrete specific writings on psychotherapeutic technique "amidst the lush literature on psychiatry," the author made it his purpose to write a book which would delineate a "sound therapeutic structure irrespective of the specific 'kind' of psychotherapy done and without reference to the individual 'style' of the therapist." The writer compares briefly education, social casework, and counseling of normal people with psychotherapy and finds considerable overlapping in goals and means. He also finds that some of the undercurrent processes in "spontaneous cure" are similar to those in psychotherapy. After these preliminary considerations Wolberg attempts to classify the existing varieties of psychotherapy into three types: (a) supportive therapies; (b) insight therapies with re-educative goals; (c) insight therapies with reconstructive goals. The reviewer reports that while the presentation of the chief tenets of the various present-day therapies is too brief to teach a novice, it is so lively and stimulating that it certainly will whet his appetite and induce him to go to the original sources. The criticism of each "approach" is confined to a few objections presented, not as the author's own beliefs, but as opinions voiced by unspecified critics. This is a very important book to be read and enjoyed by all psychologists, practitioners, and theoreticians alike. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Interpersonal psychotherapy of depression.

Reviews the book, Interpersonal psychotherapy of depression by Gerald L. Klerman, Myrna M. Weissman, Bruce J. Rounsaville, and Eve S. Chevron (1984). The authors state their intention to "describe the theoretical and empirical basis for interpersonal psychotherapy of depression," and also "offer a guide to the planning and conduct of the therapy." They do both, and waste no words. The book is organized into three parts. In the first part, the authors present an overview of the theory of the interpersonal approach of the use of interpersonal psychotherapy for depression, objectively offer both favorable and unfavorable findings from completed studies, and outline several studies in progress. The chapters in Part Two clarify how one conducts interpersonal therapy of depression. Part Three addresses the combination of psychotherapy with pharmacotherapy and the professional requirements of the therapist. This book is clearly written, well referenced, and easily understood by beginners who might not have the perspective, as well as by busy veterans who want to learn something new without plowing through mountains of theory and data. It would be useful for students in training, and extremely valuable to the legions of relatively inexperienced front-line mental health center therapists who are required to use time-limited approaches with depressed patients, often without having much structure for what they are doing. More experienced therapists who treat ambulatory depressed patients will add to their clinical skills and enjoy the process. The authors have turned their manual into a useful book that competes most favorably with other texts on short-term approaches to therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Ego defenses: Theory and measurement.

Reviews the book, Ego defenses: Theory and measurement by H. R. Conte and R. Plutchik (see record 1994-98641-000). This book comprehensively examines one of the most influential concepts in psychotherapy and counseling, that of defenses and their role in the therapeutic process. It is very well-written and exhaustive in the sense that covers a wide range of issues related to defenses from conceptual and theoretical to issues of clinical application and measurement. Stemming out of a psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective the authors revisit the area of defenses and provide an all encompassing presentation of the major issues surrounding the importance, function and usefulness of defenses in psychotherapy and counseling. The book is divided in two parts. The first examines theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding ego defenses and provides several theories and models for comprehending ego defenses. The second concentrates on the methods used to measure, evaluate and objectify ego defenses. The editors' effort to include a wide spectrum of authors who present different conceptualizations, theoretical approaches, and a variety of measurement methodologies is successful and should be commended. The only reservation the reviewer holds about this book is related to the fact that the concept of ego defenses is closely related to insight oriented therapies and approaches and to a constructivist epistemology of human nature. As such, it would prove useless to these clinicians who adhere to behavioral or existential epistemological perspectives to explain and comprehend human nature. All in all, this book is a necessary addition to all those—academics, clinicians and researchers—who in one way or another deal with emotions, human functioning, and psychotherapeutic change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Reassessing psychotherapy research.

Reviews the book, Reassessing psychotherapy research edited by Robert L. Russell (see record 1994-98237-000). This book, with its international representation of contributors, attempts to address central issues in contemporary ("fourth generation") psychotherapy research. The main tenet is that much dominant psychotherapy research has focused on outcome, curative factors, and scientific rigor and overlooked the richness of therapeutic process. This book does as the title suggests: addresses content and process issues, balanced with methodological sophistication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Rehearsals for growth: Theater improvisation for psychotherapists.

Reviews the book, Rehearsals for growth: Theater improvisation for psychotherapists by Daniel J. Wiener (see record 1994-98676-000). This book is clearly written for psychotherapists who might be interested in improv and improv's applications to the psychotherapeutic stage, and not for actors and actresses studying psychotherapy. The style of the book is unique. It is a weave of personal narrative, literature review, interviews with improv teachers, practical ideas, and case material. It is also written so that after a brief introduction one may play with the book as one likes—it can be read cover to cover; one can go directly to practical ideas; another can study the content chapters in any order; and so on. I read the book cover to cover, and the shifts is presentation style felt disruptive, but this might be the very improv principles at work in the author's writing style. Probably the most useful part of the book is the bounty of ideas, games, and exercises. These techniques are described in text and tabulated in an appendix for easy reference and comparison. The games and exercises are playful, thought-provoking, maybe even iconoclastic, and potentially therapeutic with a skilled therapist. The book is worthwhile for almost any psychotherapist from any therapeutic modality. The challenge, though, for those that accept it, doing what it takes to develop genuine and reliable spontaneity. Rehearsals for Growth is one method to achieve that aim. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Working it out: Using exercise in psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, Working it out: Using exercise in psychotherapy by Kate F. Hays (1999). In this well-organized book, Kate Hays presents exercise as a important component of a multi-modal approach to therapy. The overall content is differentiated into four major sections, in the first of which Hays establishes the value of exercise. The second section moves from theory to the use of exercise as a therapeutic tool. Outlined in the third section are the "Psychological Benefits of Exercise with Specific Populations," overviewing many common clinical populations and specific exercise-based treatment recommendations. The fourth section, "Caveats and Boundaries," is just that, an important collection of chapters that did not find a place elsewhere in the book. This book contributes to a practical and applied view of the synergistic interaction of mind and body. Its essential message adds to the base of literature having the potential to influence private and public programs promoting health and well-being. This book ought to be well received by students and professionals such as educators, clinicians and counsellors of varied disciplines, physicians, physiotherapists, and social workers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The process of psychotherapy.

Reviews the book "The process of psychotherapy," by H. V. Ingham and L. R. Love (see record 1954-07599-000). In the preface the authors state "This book is an attempt to describe the ways in which a psychotherapist works. . . . Anyone engaged in psychotherapy is concerned with both an understanding of people and an appreciation of the ways of dealing with them. Certainly much more consideration has generally been given to a presentation of dynamic theory or to using the advantages of combining both fields than to efforts at describing how psychotherapy is conducted." The authors have been singularly successful in avoiding raising and discussing problems either of "dynamic theory" or the relation of theory to psychotherapeutic practice. It is difficult to evaluate this book because we are not told for whom it is intended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pursuing a unifying paradigm for psychotherapy: Tasks, dialectical considerations, and biopsychosocial systems metatheory.

This article focuses on salient issues and directions in pursuing a unifying paradigm for psychotherapy. This endeavor is placed in historical context, followed by discussion of the author's definition of unification and of benefits that can accrue from this pursuit. Subsequently, attention is devoted to the core challenge of reconciling the quest for unity with the enormous, functionally invaluable plurality of knowledge elements deriving from the multiple paradigms guiding psychotherapy theory, research, and practice. Based on Staats (1991, 1999), three tasks necessary for addressing this tension are delineated: undertaking unifying theory analysis to reduce conceptual redundancy; developing bridging theory to unify divergencies, facilitated by dialectical thinking and formulation; and unifying research methodologies in psychotherapy. Discussion then turns to biopsychosocial systems metatheory as a framework for a unifying psychotherapeutic paradigm. In this context, the author examines interrelationship and process as fundamental unifying principles; insights from cybernetics, chaos theory, and their synthesis; and implications of the systems paradigm for unification-oriented scientific inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The complex secret of brief psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, The complex secret of brief psychotherapy by James Paul Gustafson (1986). This book attempts to synthesize the major findings of the last century in the field of psychotherapy, and to make these findings available to the clinician who is doing brief psychotherapy. Gustafson uses the major portion of the book to review briefly the work of nineteen individuals and groups who have contributed to his thinking about the effective doing of and the effective teaching of brief psychotherapy. Most theorists or schools are presented through the prism of one case study, followed by a brief discussion of the method employed, and then the presentation of a case in which this particular approach was utilized. This book has a number of things to recommend it. The author is engaged in psychotherapy research, and the appendix contains extensive material on his formulations of cases, work with patients, and follow-up interviews. All of the case material in the book, including the author's own cases and those he chooses to present from the work of others, is very valuable. For the advanced clinician, this material forms a solid resource. For the beginning clinician, case material of this kind can be very intriguing and very helpful. The book might be somewhat difficult conceptually for the beginning clinician, though, or for the clinician beginning to do brief psychotherapy. In addition, the writing style is problematic. Gustafson's ideas are generally sound and worthy of consideration, but are at times presented poorly. His conceptualizations can be difficult to follow, and his writing style does not adequately convey such difficult material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Family-of-origin therapy: An intergenerational approach.

Reviews the book, Family-of-origin therapy: An intergenerational approach by James L. Framo (see record 1992-97188-000). This book is a summation of the author's intergenerational approach to psychotherapy which has evolved in his 35 years of clinical practice. For his theoretical base he draws on Fairbairn's object relations theory, combined with Dicks' application of this theory to marital relationships. Framo further integrates this approach with the basic precepts of Bowen's multigenerational theory, particularly Bowen's emphasis on bypassing transferential issues by encouraging patients to connect with members of their family-of-origin. The innovative and unique aspect of Framo's psychotherapeutic approach is his use of one or two family-of-origin sessions. In the course of psychotherapy with adult clients, whether seen individually, as a couple, or in a couples group, he encourages them to bring in the members of their family-of-origin for two, two-hour sessions. The purpose is for the patient to develop the capacity and the courage to talk directly to all familial significant others about unresolved issues between them, rather than spending months or years talking to their therapist about these issues, or in analyzing the patient's transferential projections onto the therapist. Framo's thesis is that the family-of-origin consultation can have great power in producing positive change and flexibility in the individual and in the marital and family systems. He states that the intergenerational encounter can "create an opportunity for forgiveness for alleged wrongs, for mutual misunderstandings, compromise, acceptance and resolution." In this book the author clearly delineates his conceptual basis as well as providing explicit guidelines regarding the conduct of the family-of-origin sessions. The book is an important addition to the proliferating family therapy literature and a significant step toward integrating object relations and family systems theories and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Women changing therapy: New assessments, values and strategies in feminist therapy.

Reviews the book, Women changing therapy: New assessments, values and strategies in feminist therapy edited by Joan Hamerman Robbins and Rachel Josefowitz Siegel (1985). The assertion has been made that women in general, and feminist therapists in particular, have impacted on the theory, research, and practice of psychotherapy. Women Changing Therapy is a compilation of articles designed to provide evidence for this assertion. The book grew out of the participation of a number of female therapists in the Women's Institutes of the American Orthopsychiatric Association and its breadth of topic areas addresses a wide range of issues in psychotherapy. The twenty articles are loosely arranged in three thematical areas: Women's Issues: New Assessments, Valuing Our Selves, and New Strategies in Feminist Therapy. This volume is a patchwork of sorts which attempts to detail the effect women have had on the psychotherapeutic process. While it is uneven in places, its blending and contrasting sets it up as a good reference piece and/or volume for the uninitiated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Evidence-based Psychotherapy: Where Theory and Practice Meet.

Reviews the book, Evidence-based Psychotherapy: Where Theory and Practice Meet edited by Carol D. Goodheart, Alan E. Kazdin, and Robert J. Sternberg (see record 2006-02969-000). The distinguished editors and authors of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy: Where Theory and Practice Meet have created an intellectual atmosphere in the book that paves the way for generative development of evidence-based practice (EBP) in psychotherapy in the future. The book is organized into three sections: 1) "The Practice Perspective," 2) "The Research Perspective," and 3) "Training, Policy, and Cautions." This book is an important addition to the debate on EBP in psychotherapy and highlights issues that extend well beyond the role of psychotherapy in EBP. It is highly recommended for practitioners and researchers alike and is likely to invite thoughtful questioning and reflection on core assumptions at both ends of the spectrum. Moreover, the book would serve as a useful primer on the issues germane to EBP in psychotherapy training for graduate students and psychiatric residents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychotherapy and Personality Change.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy and Personality Change by Carl R. Rogers and Rosalind F. Dymond (eds.) (1954). This volume, with twelve authors, edited by Carl Rogers and Rosalind Dymond, constitutes essentially a progress report on the large-scale research program in psychotherapy which has been under way at the Counseling Center of the University of Chicago for more than four years. It presents findings to date on outcomes and process of the client-centered or nondirective approach to psychotherapy. The book is divided into four parts, Part I presenting the context and the basic design of the research, Part II describing a series of separate investigations bearing on the various hypotheses, and Part III giving what the authors call an "objective analysis" of the therapy of two single cases, one "successful" and the other "unsuccessful," and attempting to relate each of them to the findings of the major studies reported in Part II. Part IV is called an "Overview" and poses many stiff questions for the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Communication in management.

Reviews the book "Communication in management" by Charles E. Redfield (see record 1954-06660-000). Redfield's book presents an excellent broad view of the problem of communication in industry as well as information on how to handle rather specific problems. The book is arranged in five parts. The first part provides a general introduction to the problem, and contains highly useful guiding principles for effective communication. It is necessarily general in scope, but it does seem to give too little attention to one aspect of communication, effectiveness as a function of the educational differences of "communicator" and "communicatee." Part II of the book takes up "communication downward and outward," the most important aspect of which is order-giving. In Part III, Redfield presents "communication upward and inward." Part IV of the book is an interesting presentation of "horizontal communication," or such cross-talk as clearance, review, and conferences. In the final section of the book (Part V), Redfield presents his views of the future of communication in management. All in all, the book is a valuable one, chiefly for its survey of the field and its complete list of references and selected readings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychotherapeutic change: An alternative approach to meaning and measurement.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapeutic change: An alternative approach to meaning and measurement by Alvin R. Mahrer (1985). This small and unpretentious volume is a welcome addition to the growing number of recent publications in the field of psychotherapy research that emphasize the need for innovative and more dynamic and functional conceptualizations of the meaning and measurement of psychotherapeutic change. Despite (or perhaps because of) its provocative content, Psychotherapeutic Change is an enjoyable book to read. Mahrer's style of writing is engaging, clear, and free of the customary clinical jargon. Also refreshing is the fact that the material throughout the book comes straight from the concerns of a practitioner. Although the reader may not always agree with the author and may be annoyed by the occasional repetitiveness of some ideas, this book will prove to be a source of stimulating ideas for students, clinicians, and researchers of psychotherapy alike. (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)