Main description:

Some will wonder why this book, with its specific focus on the pro cess of change in psychotherapy, was chosen for inclusion in "Crit ical Issues in Psychiatry: A Series for Residents and Clinicians" as our books are generally devoted to a broad topical survey of some im portant clinical area in the practice of psychiatry or a related mental health discipline. The answer will become rapidly apparent to the reader, for Dr. Horowitz has developed an exciting, creative, and practical method whereby any psychotherapist can understand, monitor, conceptualize, and evaluate the process of change in psychotherapy. His method of "configurational analysis" utilizes direct clinical observations of emotional states, role relationships, and information processing to systematically, in a step-by-step fashion, organize and describe clinical data. It can be employed at any point in the therapeutic transaction, from the time of initial presentation to the time of termina tion or follow-up. This method of organizing information about a person, his problems and resources, and the nature of the psychotherapeutic transaction provides the therapist with a powerful tool with which to both understand and communicate how and why change occurs, or does not occur, in psychotherapy. It can be applied all the way from the description of large-scale patterns to the microanalytic dissection and understanding of a small segment of a therapy session.

Contents:

Plan for Configurational Analysis: Summary of Illustration Case.- Plan for Configurational Analysis: Summary of Illustration Case.- I. The Definition of Problems.- One Description of Problems.- Two States and State Cycles.- Three Self-Images and Relationship Models.- Four Ideas, Emotions, and Controls.- II. Processes of Change.- Five Modification of the Transition between States.- Six Development of Self-Images and Role Relationships.- Seven Working Through Ideas, Feelings, and Modifying Controls.- III. Description of Outcome.- Eight Alteration in the Frequency and Quality of States.- Nine Modification of Self-Images and Role Relationships.- Ten Change in Ideational Constellations and Information-Processing Style.- IV. Applications of Configurational Analysis.- Eleven Use of Configurational Analysis in Teaching.- Twelve Research Applications(with Nancy Wilner and Charles Marmar).- Thirteen Applications during Treatment.- Appendix Transcript Illustrations.- Appendix Transcript Illustrations.- A. Relationship Processes: The Therapeutic Alliance.- B. Working Through: The Homesickness Theme.- References.