Product Description

What kinds of questions do experienced therapists ask themselves when facing a new client? How can clinical expertise be taught? From the author of the landmark Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, this book takes clinicians step-by-step through developing an understanding of each client's unique psychology and using this information to guide and inform treatment decisions.

McWilliams shows that while seasoned practitioners rely upon established diagnostic categories for record-keeping and insurance purposes, their actual clinical concepts and practices reflect more inferential, subjective, and intuitive processes.

Interweaving illustrative case examples with theoretical insights and clinically significant research, chapters cover assessment of client temperament, developmental issues, defenses, affects, identifications, relational patterns, self-esteem needs, and pathogenic beliefs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8813 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781572304628
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Psychoanalytic Case Formulation is aimed at both the student who may not have had a lot of exposure to psychoanalytic ideas as well as the more seasoned clinician. Chapters cover assessing what cannot be changed; developmental issues, defences, affects, identifications, relationships, self esteem needs and pathogenic beliefs. Each chapter concludes with a concise summary of key points....This book is highly readable and describes patients and situations that can be readily identified. I am sure that it will find a comfortable home on the bookshelves of many experienced clinicians and particularly those learning the art of psychotherapy."--Australasian Journal of Psychotherapy

"Her straightforward language, as illustrated in her title choices, makes the book user-friendly for even the most junior student. Her introductory chapter, with its excellent overview of the goals of psychoanalytic therapy, could be a very useful section for teachers, particularly of psychiatric residents. Her review of developmental theory in chapter 4 is comprehensive and easy to digest. The entire book has an informal, chatty style reminiscent of a seminar, and McWilliams generously includes examples drawn from her life and practice."--Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA)
-- Review

Review

From the Publisher
Also From Nancy Mcwilliams- Psychoanalytic Diagnosis Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process, 398 Pages, 1994, Hardcover ISBN 0-89862-199-2, Cat. #2199, $40.00. A successful attempt to bring together the many strands of contemporary psychoanalytic investigation of the nature and psychotherapeutic treatment of character pathology. Readable and informative....[An] excellent primer (Otto F. Kernberg, MD).

Customer Reviews

Better than any other five books on psychology
While I agree with another reviewer that "The book could be much more valuable ... had there been a greater focus on relating findings more clearly and thoroughly to the actual work of therapy," it wouldn't then be about "case formulation," would it? There is more wisdom in this book that in any other five books on psychology I've read recently, and I read a lot. It's full of seemingly obvious insights I've never heard anyone say before. Simplicity and clarity are misleadingly difficult to pull off and are the sign of someone with real understanding. You may not be able to have Nancy McWilliams supervise your work but you can buy this book. She's not infallible; I don't agree with everything she says, but I also don't think you can go wrong by spending a few evenings with her.

A Good Read
Nancy Mc Williams is imminently readable. She has the gift of de-mystifying difficult concepts; or, put another way, she does not apparently have ego-needs that compel her to make the concepts of psychotherapy, or the field itself, obtuse. She also has quite an ability to cut-to-the-chase. Consider, for example, her description of "insight": "Part of the emphasis on understanding is that the two of them [patient and therapist] need something to talk about while the nonspecific relational factors are doing their quiet healing." Her personality shows through in her writing, so you will learn at two levels -- what she is telling you explicity,which is invaluable, and what she is telling you implicitly -- what it is about her that makes her so effective -- and believe me, you would want her to be your therapist, supervisor, whatever. As an aside, she seems to have a particular interest in, and gift for working with, addicts and sociopaths. Read the book, make charts, keep it at hand. It's a good read.

Fantastic for (psychodynamic?) therapists
Few books on *psychoanalytic* therapy offer such an excellent combination of theory and *application*. Want to know what to do in therapy once you recognize your patient's defenses, patterns, level of self-esteem, issues with affect, etc? Get this book. You do not know basic psychoanalytic tenets? The theory is there as well.

Some people think this book is only for beginners. I disagree. It seems simple because McWilliams is a gifted writer and teacher, and has a knack to explain the most difficult concepts with everyday language that a 6 year old would understand. If you want an easy read with a lot of substance, read McWilliams. If you want a painful read with little substance, read Lacan (haha.) I am a beginner therapist, and this book has helped me immensely. The professor that recommended it has been practising for 35 years and *still* finds it useful. (Note: he is a renowned clinician and scholar... not just anybody)

Every sentence counts. There is no superfluous material here. You get your every penny's worth of information. The book is also a page-turner--since when is a textbook supposed to be this enjoyable??? And McWilliams, who is obviously comfortable in her own skin, does not show the dogmatism that is typical in other writers. She is open to admit the usefulness of other approaches to therapy, and this very openness makes this text a useful resource for anyone interested in psychotherapy, even if they are coming from a different approach (cognitive behavioral, humanistic...).