Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process
Rating: 4 of 5
Straightforward solutions
This is an intelligent, practical & honest resource. It is not full of wordy, mind-numbing explanations like many other psychodynamic texts. Definitely would recommend.
Rating: 5 of 5
Excellent book
Highly recommended 4 anyone interested in personality or clinical psychology. Nancy McWilliams is a fantastic writer & makes quite complex concepts very accessible & easily understandable. I also appreciate the compassion with which she discusses personality disordered individuals.
Rating: 5 of 5
Accessible Freud
This book is required reading 4 my graduate studies, but after having read Brenner 2 get the complexities of Freud's theories, it is quite refreshing. The book is well organized, & it doesn't drown in academic language. It is fairly easy 2 understand, which makes it possible 2 put all of the components of psycho-dynamics together 2 make sense. I would reccommend this 2 anyone who wants 2 understand the origin of psycho-analysis, or 2 anyone who just is curious about Freud & how he influenced our world through his ground breaking theories.
Rating: 5 of 5
Not just 4 the psychodynamically inclined.
With clarity of expression, humanity & imagination, McWilliams has written a classic exposition of psychodiagnosis from the dynamic framework. However, this book will be read 4 years 2 come by clinicians seeking 2 understand symptoms & behavior in the context of the personality of the person exhibiting these symptoms or behavior, & not just clinicians who are psychodynamically oriented. I run a psychology doctoral training program & suggest this book 2 all of my students. Understanding the concepts herein will have great impact on the clinical work of any serious therapist.
Rating: 5 of 5
A New Level of Understanding
Briefly, this book has given me a new level of understanding of my clients -- sadly one I never got in my cognitive-behavioral oriented graduate school. There is a richness & depth that, in my experience, is astonishing 2 find in one author. E.g., I had little clue 2 what goes on in the mind & heart of someone with a diagnosis antisocial/psychopathic personality, or how one could reach such an individual. The book speaks of inner conflicts, defenses, transference & countertransference & therapeutic strategies in such a manner that one has a coherent understanding at a new level of depth.
This is the first text 2 come along in many years that makes psychoanalytic personality theory & its implications 4 practice accessible 2 beginning practitioners. The last book of its kind, which was published more than 20 years ago, predated the development of such significant concepts as borderline syndromes, narcissistic pathology, dissociative disorders & self-defeating personality.
Contemporary students often react with bewilderment 2 the language of pioneering analysts like Reich & Fenichel and, since 1980, the various volumes of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have reflected an empirical-descriptive orientation that deliberately eschews psychodynamic assumptions. Consequently, today's therapist in training may have little exposure 2 the rich clinical & theoretical history behind each disorder mentioned in DSM; 2 psychoanalytic expertise with widely recognized character patterns not mentioned in DSM, such as depressive & hypomanic psychologies, high-functioning schizoid personalities, & hysterical personalities; or 2 a comprehensive, theoretically sophisticated rationale that links assessment 2 treatment.
Filling the need 4 a text that clearly lays out the conceptual heritage that psychoanalytic practitioners take 4 granted, this important new volume explicates the major clinically important character types & suggests how an appreciation of the patients' individual personality structure should influence the therapist's focus & style of intervention. Dispensing with the dense jargon that often discourages people from learning, Nancy McWilliams writes in a lucid, personal manner that demystifies psychodynamic theory & practice. Innumerable clinical vignettes are presented with humor, candor, & compassion, bringing abstract concepts 2 life.
Comprehensive in scope, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis will be valued by seasoned clinicians & students alike. Psychodynamically oriented readers will find it an excellent introduction 2 psychoanalytic diagnostic thinking. For those identified with other approaches, it will foster psychoanalytic literacy, providing them with the capacity 2 better understand the approaches of their analytically oriented colleagues.
Contemporary students often react with bewilderment 2 the language of pioneering analysts like Reich & Fenichel and, since 1980, the various volumes of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have reflected an empirical-descriptive orientation that deliberately eschews psychodynamic assumptions. Consequently, today's therapist in training may have little exposure 2 the rich clinical & theoretical history behind each disorder mentioned in DSM; 2 psychoanalytic expertise with widely recognized character patterns not mentioned in DSM, such as depressive & hypomanic psychologies, high-functioning schizoid personalities, & hysterical personalities; or 2 a comprehensive, theoretically sophisticated rationale that links assessment 2 treatment.
Filling the need 4 a text that clearly lays out the conceptual heritage that psychoanalytic practitioners take 4 granted, this important new volume explicates the major clinically important character types & suggests how an appreciation of the patients' individual personality structure should influence the therapist's focus & style of intervention. Dispensing with the dense jargon that often discourages people from learning, Nancy McWilliams writes in a lucid, personal manner that demystifies psychodynamic theory & practice. Innumerable clinical vignettes are presented with humor, candor, & compassion, bringing abstract concepts 2 life.
Comprehensive in scope, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis will be valued by seasoned clinicians & students alike. Psychodynamically oriented readers will find it an excellent introduction 2 psychoanalytic diagnostic thinking. For those identified with other approaches, it will foster psychoanalytic literacy, providing them with the capacity 2 better understand the approaches of their analytically oriented colleagues.
($37.44)
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