Review of Supportive therapy for borderline patients—A psychodynamic approach.

Reviews the book, Supportive therapy for borderline patients—A psychodynamic approach by Lawrence H. Rockland (see record 1992-97952-000). In this book, the author addresses the supportive psychotherapy of clients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). While there is an abundant literature on expressive and psychoanalytic treatments for the borderline client there is very little on supportive approaches in the psychotherapy literature. Rockland offers a guide to the therapist who, after careful assessment and treatment planning, decides that a primarily supportive psychotherapy is most appropriate for his/her client, either initially or throughout the treatment. Using a practical, how-to format, Rockland applies the principles of Psychodynamically Oriented Supportive Therapy (POST)—an approach that he formulated (Rockland, 1989)—to clients with BPD. This text will assist clinicians in conceptualizing interventions that are often already part of their "supportive" repertoire but are applied in an unorganized and unsystematic fashion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Group therapy for medically ill patients.

Reviews the book, Group therapy for medically ill patients edited by James L. Spira (see record 1997-97516-000). This book provides information on group psychotherapy for the management of acute and chronically ill medical patients. The text is divided into sections dealing with illness prevention, threats-to-life illnesses, and maladaptive health behaviors. According to the reviewer, this book lacks comprehensiveness and only its reference sections serve as a means to redirect the aggressive reader to a foundation and expansion for each topic. In addition, it may cover too little while attempting to cover a great deal. However, this text serves as a convenient, albeit incomplete reference and is a worthy addition to the clinician's library. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Solution-oriented therapy for chronic and severe mental illness.

Reviews the book, Solution-oriented therapy for chronic and severe mental illness by Tim Rowan and Bill O'Hanlon (see record 2001-01051-000). This book presents clever and compelling interventions that are very informed, caring, egalitarian, and anchored in what we now know that clients with severe mental illness (SMI) want. The first eight chapters are extraordinarily good. They cover hopeful approaches for demoralized patients, methods of challenging beliefs such as the impossibility of change, ideas that blame, and ideas that disempower or invalidate clients or families. The last four chapters, however, lacked innovation, were too short and too basic, and simply did not have much to say. The cases the authors presented suggested that the clients they were working with were high functioning people with SMI. The authors do not appear to address the patients with neurocognitive deficits, lower IQs, poor verbal skills, and deficits in basic life skills. Also, the reference list is very brief and ignores most of the work that has appeared in the last 10 years or so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Five therapists and one client.

Reviews the book, Five therapists and one client by Raymond J. Corsini (see record 1993-97589-000). To address the question of how the course of therapy would differ depending on the therapist's basic orientation, Corsini created a fictitious client with relatively minor but persistent problems. Therapists from five major systems of psychotherapy were chosen to write very specifically about how they would treat this client. The five systems include Adlerian, person-centered, rationale-emotive, behavioral, and eclectic. The book is divided into six chapters with one chapter for each of the five systems and an introductory chapter in which the problems of the client are given. This is an informative book for professionals, students, and those who are simply interested in the process of psychotherapy and human growth. The book provides very practical, basic information about the therapeutic process from five different perspectives as well as deeper theoretical insight into these respective approaches. Even the sophisticated reader will find much of value in Corsini's book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Madhouse and The Lobotomist.

Reviews the books, Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine by Andrew Scull (see record 2005-06776-000); and The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness by Jack El-Hai (see record 2005-02343-000). In both books, the history of experimental clinical psychiatry is laid bare with devastating accounts of the efforts to conquer mental illness by any means necessary. Both books are fascinating reading and may illuminate our current context in which the biological avenues for treating mental disorders continue to traffic in hopes of a one-size-fits-all cure, while psychoanalysis ambivalently struggles with how to conduct rigorous research to demonstrate the efficacy of our treatment. Andrew Scull's book Madhouse offers a well-documented historical account of a bizarre episode in American psychiatric history. The centerpiece of Scull's investigative work is Henry Cotton, MD, the superintendent of the Trenton State Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey, from 1907-1930. Once Cotton arrived at Trenton, he was appalled by the conditions he found and instituted reforms such as eliminating the culture of violence by attendants, removing over 700 pieces of restraining equipment from the hospital, and introducing occupational therapy. Jack El-Hai gives us the next segment of psychiatric surgery in his book The Lobotomist, a biography of the neurologist, turned surgical outlaw, Walter Freeman, MD. Walter Freeman was a neurologist fascinated with science and experimentation. Settling into work at St. Elizabeth's hospital in Washington, DC, in 1924, Freeman eventually joined the faculty of George Washington University where he remained until 1954. At that time neurosyphilis was the scourge of mental hospitals producing thousands of victims who were totally disabled by the neurological sequellae of tertiary illness. Thus lobotomy became an efficient outpatient procedure that could be applied to a larger patient population. Both of these books are important reading. Of all the great medical advances of the last century, surely the one that stands out as perhaps the greatest is the Nuremberg Code of 1947, which requires a competent patient giving informed consent to treatment and to research efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognitive therapy with schizophrenic patients.

Reviews the book, Cognitive therapy with schizophrenic patients by Carlo Perris (see record 1989-97536-000). The author wrote this book with the purpose of presenting cognitive psychotherapy as a part of a successful holistic, cognitive behavioral program implemented at small community-based treatment centers, and as individual therapy with relatively young patients suffering from a schizophrenic disorder. The program de-emphasizes the medical model and introduces a 24-hour psychosocial milieu treatment model conducted over at least 9 full months, in which the patient is responsible for goal-setting, interpersonal problem solving, and medication schedule, with little family intervention. Throughout the text, the author writes about cognitive psychotherapy. The words "cognitive psychotherapy" not "cognitive therapy" would seem to be most appropriate for the tide of the book. For some therapists and researchers, specific information on cognitive therapy includes more details on tasks and measures of performance ranging from arousal, attention, and concentration through recognition, recall, immediate, delayed, long-term, and short term and executive functions, that is, the information processing approach. One of the attractions of the book is that readers first learning about cognitive psychotherapy are offered an opportunity to explore the future use of cognitive psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients and other patient groups. For psychotherapists, mental health workers, graduate, and undergraduate students, Cognitive Therapy with Schizophrenic Patients, is a thorough introduction to a new treatment strategy for schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The competent child.

Reviews the book, The competent child by Joseph M. Strayhorn (see record 1988-97840-000). The Competent Child is an outline of Strayhorn's approach to psychotherapy. The value of this text rests in its ability to present a clear and practical guide to therapy with children, while respecting the individuality of the therapist and client. In developing his approach to psychotherapy, Strayhorn was guided by two concepts: 1) all psychotherapy can be subsumed under a competence-based approach and 2) psychotherapy is essentially a learning-based intervention which involves the acquisition of skills. The first five chapters of the book provide the background for understanding the skills X method approach and instruct the reader as to how to assess a child's skills. The next three chapters are devoted to the application of the approach to children, adolescents and parents. In chapter nine Strayhorn discusses the difficulties one can have in producing positive results in therapy and attempts to deal with some of the difficulties one might run in to. The final two chapters propose ways of expanding the competence approach into preventive mental health and raise research questions. The book can be recommended to seasoned child practitioners looking to expand their repertoire of skills and to novices seeking to go beyond theory to practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Techniques of child therapy: Psychodynamic strategies.

Reviews the book, Techniques of child therapy: Psychodynamic strategies by Morton Chethik (see record 1989-97537-000). This volume is addressed both to the advanced psychotherapy student and to the practitioner who is just beginning to work with children. It provides an orientation to the dynamic approach of assessing the young patient, of formulating a working model of the child's conflicts, and ways to gradually intervene in order to restore the normal developmental process. To furnish this orientation, discussions are included on the basics of play therapy, working with parents, fundamental tasks of treatment, conceptual frameworks for guiding interventions, distinctions between different forms of intervention, and differences in therapeutic strategy for working with various disorders ranging from situationally induced acting-out to character pathologies. Although it may seem overly ambitious for the author to explicate and integrate this amount of material within a book of this size, he has nonetheless succeeded in creating a cohesive and clinically useful body of knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can Something Hard Be Made Easy? A Book Essay.

Three books that are intended to teach about psychotherapy (B. D. Beitman & D. Yue, (see record 1999-02454-000); N. A. Cummings & J. L. Cummings, (see record 2000-08252-000); M. O'Brien & G. Houston, (see record 2001-14109-000)) are reviewed with an intent to note points of agreement and disagreement. Although they disagree about some specifics, they agree as to the crucial role of research, theory, and experience and focus on the centrality of the therapeutic relationship. Each endorses the value of psychotherapy integration, although they approach it in different ways. In addition, each recognizes the importance of the cultural context of the treatment relationship and emphasizes the importance of knowledge and attitudes as preconditions to developing appropriate skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Countertransference in psychotherapy with children and adolescents.

Reviews the book, Countertransference in psychotherapy with children and adolescents edited by Jerrold R. Brandell (see record 1992-97833-000). Books on child analytic work are rare, and books on countertransference in child treatment are basically nonexistent, despite the proliferation of writing on countertransference in work with adults. Thus, Jerrold Brandell's edited volume is a welcome and long-overdue addition to the literature. Although the book is not strictly about analysis, it is analytically informed. Brandell's stated goal is to advance the principle that "countertransference is a ubiquitous factor in child and adolescent treatment, and that its recognition, understanding, and management are essential to effective psychotherapy." This is indeed a worthy if not essential undertaking, and the collection of articles in Brandell's book advances this goal. Brandell prefaced the chapters with his own thorough historical literature review of countertransference in both adult and child work. He then subdivided the book into two sections, with the first containing two classic articles an countertransference and the bulk of the book devoted to the following "scientific situations" in child psychotherapy: racial and cultural issues, depressed and suicidal children and adolescents, infant-family treatment, severely disturbed adolescents, eating disorders, abused children and adolescents, parent loss and divorce, borderline children and adolescents, life-threatening illness, and substance-abusing adolescents. This book is a very good resource for child analysts and therapists, especially those who espouse a more relational or intersubjective point of view. It is suitable both for inexperienced analysts and as a reminder to more seasoned ones of the importance and pervasiveness of countertransference issues in our work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychobiographic approach to psychotherapy: A study of the power structure of psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, Psychobiographic approach to psychotherapy: A study of the power structure of psychotherapy by Herzel Yerushalmi (see record 1998-07924-000). The author of this book critically examines history, philosophy, theory, and current practice of mainstream psychotherapy, with an eye toward exposing a power differential that he thinks disaffirms and can even revictimize those who seek help. Yerushalmi's psychobiographic approach is based on the premise that the client is the only one in possession of unique knowledge of the individual reality. The reviewer states that readers of this book who seek to learn specific techniques to apply to psychotherapy are likely to be disappointed. In addition, the material is often abstract and philosophical and its intended audience is clearly the practicing clinician. He recommends this book for therapists who seek to improve their effectiveness as helpers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editor’s choices.

Reviews the books, Mind regained by Edward Pols (see record 1998-06466-000); Manifesto of a passionate moderate by Susan Haack (1998); and Mind, meaning and mental disorder: The nature of causal explanation in psychology and psychiatry by Derek Bolton and Jonathan Hill (see record 1996-98296-000). In different but equally compelling ways, these three books address central problems in philosophical psychology and offer telling replies to more complacent perspectives on the nature of mind and mental life. The first two of the volumes are by philosophers, the third by authors trained in clinical psychology and psychiatry. In different ways, each of the volumes is at war with simplistic conceptions of explanation; each is also careful to distinguish between the correctives needed and a lapse into relativistic and ultimately skeptical positions on the nature of knowledge itself. All three of these volumes would serve as useful, even essential, texts in advanced courses in theory and philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social science, philosophy of mind. But so would they serve in interesting ways the larger aims of courses in Personality and Abnormal Psychology. Together, these books present encouraging reminders of the importance of conceptual analysis to the development and refinement of Psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of College psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, College psychotherapy edited by Paul A. Grayson and Kate Cauley (see record 1989-97599-000). According to the reviewer, this was an enjoyable and informative book, easily read with helpful suggestions for working with the college population. It is devoid of the pretentious theorizing or condescending didacticism found in many "how-to" books in psychology. Doctors Grayson and Cauley are primarily interested in addressing the needs of those who practice counseling or psychotherapy with college students. Their treatment approach is described as "discriminating eclecticism." They point out that the college population is too heterogeneous to fit a standard treatment orientation. IThis book is highly recommended to all who work with college population, not just those who are in university settings. This is also an excellent sourcebook for graduate students who want to fortify their therapeutic skills and those who supervise these students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Time-limited, intermittent therapy with children and families.

Reviews the book, Time-limited, intermittent therapy with children and families by Thomas Kreilkamp (see record 1989-97421-000). The use of the word "therapy" in the title of this book may mislead some potential readers. In this book Kreilkamp describes, in general terms, a model of active intervention which combines educational and consultative elements with a vaguely endorsed "psychodynamic" understanding of defenses. This intervention, applied in a time-limited, intermittent way, aims at changing children's problem behaviors, usually by changing the ways parents see and understand them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Roadblocks in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities for Change.

This article provides a review of "Roadblocks in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities for Change" (see record 2004-00137-000). In the nearly 50 years since cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) models were pioneered by Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, CBT approaches have enjoyed a wide range of applications and considerable empirical and clinical success. A frequent criticism of the CBT model has been that its approaches favor technique and behavioral change over the "substance" of psychotherapy (e.g., therapeutic alliance, resistance, engagement). Designed primarily for clinicians, "Roadblocks in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy" is well-written and easy to read. In keeping with the tradition of CBT, the authors rely on empirical research to support their tenets, while keeping the emphasis of each chapter on clinical utility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The value of psychological treatment: The collected papers of Nicholas A. Cummings, Vol. 1; Focused psychotherapy: A casebook of brief, intermittent psychotherapy throughout the lifecycle; and The practice of psychology: The battle for professionalism..

Reviews the books, The value of psychological treatment: The collected papers of Nicholas A. Cummings, Vol. 1 edited by J. Lawrence Thomas and Janet L. Cummings (see record 2000-08331-000); Focused psychotherapy: A casebook of brief, intermittent psychotherapy throughout the life cycle by Nicholas A. Cummings and Mike Sayama (see record 1995-98522-000); and The practice of psychology: The battle for professionalism edited by Rogers H. Wright and Nicholas A. Cummings (2001). While Cummings has published numerous volumes and dozens of articles and chapters, the three books under review here offer a good introduction to some of his many activities and contributions. The first book provides a very nice sampling of research and position papers. Several chapters describe aspects of the “medical utilization offset phenomenon,” the oft-replicated finding that psychological services can reduce overall healthcare costs, perhaps partly by eliminating unnecessary medical visits. The second book is a clinician’s book illustrating the central tenet of Cummings’s “Patient’s Bill of Rights”—that “the patient is entitled to relief from pain, anxiety, and depression in the shortest time possible and with the least intrusive intervention.” In the last book, names are named and many details are given about numerous battles between 1955 and 1995 involving issues such as dissatisfaction with the Boulder (scientist–practitioner) Model. The reviewer concludes that reading Cummings' work elucidates the fact that the struggles of the psychology profession appear far from over. These books can help us prepare for where we need to go in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Negotiating consent in psychotherapy.

Reviews the book, Negotiating consent in psychotherapy by Patrick O'Neill (see record 1999-08089-000). This book examines the importance of negotiating consent in psychotherapy, the extent to which it occurs between client and therapist during therapy, and its impact on the therapeutic process. The author achieves this through the use of qualitative research methods, conducting in-depth interviews with clients and therapists alike. O'Neill also incorporates the concept of narrative construction to frame the therapeutic process. According to the reviewer, this book is straightforward and refreshingly free from psychological jargon so it can be read by both professionals and the general public. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychotherapy of the self.

Reviews the book, The psychotherapy of the self by Hyman L. Muslin and Eduardo R. Val (see record 1987-98090-000). This book is written for mental health professionals. Its intention is to present criteria for psychopathology from a self-psychological viewpoint. Based on a differential diagnosis, a psychoanalytic treatment modality is suggested that is judged to be most suitable to the assessed psychopathology. This book offers excellent clinical material, presented in detail, with an ongoing commentary which illuminates the interviewer's interpretation of the data presented. The problems with the book do not lie in the clinical material presented. Its problems result from the way in which the material is organized and the theoretical claims that are stated or implied. A more controversial but equally important criticism of the book is the manner in which data collection and the relationship between therapist and client are conceptualized. The reviewer found the book to contain some major shortcomings. It is theoretically lacking, though clinically stimulating. A reader will find the book valuable for its clinical material and the manner in which this is presented. In addition, there are insights to be gained relating to the functioning of the therapist as he or she experientially participates in the process of psychotherapy. (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)