Main description:

In reviewing Dr. Corson's Stress, Self-Concept, and Violence (AMS 1989), G. C. Walters wrote ""Stress Gets a Personality."" This new book elaborates on the notions about personality that Corson described in 1989 and follows the lives of the violent individuals whose cases were described in the first book. Here, Corson expands his description to include work with clients who have no history of violent behavior: combat veterans with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, individuals with panic attacks, sex offenders, and people who find it difficult to deal with the stresses of daily life. He shows how carefully selected principles of learning, and attention to data gathered at each session, can guide the course of treatment, and how it is possible - even with limited staff in a rural setting - to design individualized interventions that lead to tangible benefits for this very challenging population of clients.

Contents:

Introduction; Part One: Theory and Strategy; 1. An Ideographic Approach to Theory; 2. A Shifting Theory of Personality; 3. Biological Variables in Personality; Part Two: Lessons from the Family; 4. Families as Mutual Control Systems; 5. The Family Optimization Program; 6. Troubled Families with Preverbal Children; 7. Troubled Adults; Part Three: Technique; 8. Group Assessment; 9. Case Formulation: Tools and Strategies; 10. Psychophysiology and Biofeedback; Part Four: Violent Adults; 11. A Selective Literature Review; 12. Population, Treatment Method, and Results; 13. Case Histories, Treatment Details, and Long-term Follow-up; 14. Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Advice; 15. Conclusions Regarding Work with Individual Violent Clients; Part Five: Self-regulation Training; 16. Working with Male Clients in Groups: An Overview; 17. A Group Treatment Strategy Owing Much to Linehan's ""Dialectical Behavior Therapy""; 18. Self-regulation Strategies Used in Groups (focusing on hostile feelings and transient attention deficit disorder); 19. Self-regulation Strategies Used in Individual Sessions (focusing on panic attacks and sex offenses); Part Six: Working with Life Stories; 20. Learning the Client's Story - Narrative Work as Both Assessment and Therapy; 21. Putting It All Together and Making It Last: Working with Life Stories and Optimizing Available Selves Appendices References Index