Lives Transformed, A
Revolutionary Method of Dynamic Psychotherapy
Edition: Revised Edition
2007 Paperback
Authors: David Malan, Della
Selva & patrica Coughlin
ISBN: 9781855755116
Publishers: Karnac Books
Price: £19.99
Publication Date: 2007
Publisher’s Title Information
Revised
paperback edition. This book provides an in-depth examination of therapy in
action, based on verbatim accounts of the treatment of seven patients by
Patricia Coughlin Della Selva, using the technique of Intensive Short-term
Dynamic Psychotherapy This technique has been shown to be both effective
and cost-effective with a wide range of patients, including some who are
notoriously resistant to psychotherpeutic intervention. No-one who has read
this book can doubt the relevance of psychodynamics.
Description
The world has long awaited compelling and unmistakable evidence for the
validity of dynamic psychotherapy. A review in the present book shows that
such evidence has been accumulating over the past ten years. It comes from
clinical trials, process research, case studies, and objective
physiological measurements concerned with the importance of expressing
emotions.
The raw data of psychotherapeutic sessions enables the reader to trace the
origin of therapeutic effects, which occur immediately in response to the
direct experience of hitherto buried feelings and impulses. The validity of
psychodynamic concepts such as resistance, transference , and the origin of
neurotic disturbances in defences against intolerable feelings, is demonstrated
beyond doubt. In-depth follow-up interviews provide clear evidence of the
long-term benefits of dynamic psychotherapy. Patients continue to improve
long after termination, as each symptom and defence has been replaced by
something healthy and life-giving. With all but one patient no trace of any
of the original disturbances could be detected at follow-up, which is one
of the definitions of 'total resolution'.
No-one who has read this book can doubt the relevance of psychodynamics. 'This is a book of exceptional depth and practicality on how to work with emotion. It is both clear and full of the richest description of seven cases that one could hope to find. One learns how a therapist actually does therapy, and therefore how to do therapy. I could pay a book no higher compliment. By reading it one learns how to work with affect and somatic experience. One sees in rich and concrete detail how a therapist confronts defences, first against affect and emotional closeness, and then against unacknowledged anger and grief, which lie at the heart of much human experience and distress. The therapist promotes a full, direct experience of these previously avoided feelings. The observed therapeutic effects provide evidence that the direct experience of emotion is the key to healing in psychotherapy.'
Leslie Greenberg
Professor, Dept. of Psychology
York University Toronto