Our Inner World: A Guide to Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy - Softcover

Ahles, Scott R.

9780801878367: Our Inner World: A Guide to Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801878365 ISBN 13: 9780801878367

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004

Mental health practitioners and students learning psychodynamic psychotherapy are often exposed to multiple schools of thought—Freudian theory, interpersonal theory, ego theory, object-relations theory, self-psychology, and affect theory. In this book, Scott Ahles introduces and explains the major theories and integrates them into a model of psychodynamics that can be used to treat common psychiatric complaints.

After explaining the theories, Ahles, applies an integrated approach to two general areas of patient discomfort: problems with sense of self, such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and feelings of worthlessness; and problems with interpersonal relationships, such as difficulty forming long-term relationships, excessive shyness or fear of others, and aggressive personality. The psychotherapy of both problems of sense of self and interpersonal relationships are discussed and illustrated with clinical cases. Ahles also discusses the psychodynamic model in relation to neurobiological research into brain function, and he explores how psychotherapy can best be combined with pharmacotherapy. Throughout, the primary concepts of object relations and ego psychology are demonstrated with diagrams and case studies.

A valuable tool for teaching concepts to students of psychiatry, psychology, social work, and general medicine, Our Inner World allows the future clinician to keep various psychodynamic aspects of the patient in mind during treatment.

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Review:

By describing ideas clearly and covering many of the existing theories, this book occupies a needed niche in the teaching of psychodynamic therapy.

(Everett Siegel, M.D., The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine)

Exuding emboldening intellectual doughtiness, Ahles lucidly, and absorbingly, plumbs the challenging depths of psychodynamics and psychotherapy.

(Metapsychology 2005-01-00)

Author presents complex concepts clearly and simply.

(V. Lantos, MD Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 2005-01-00)

Highly recommended for libraries serving students training in the psychology, psychiatry, social work and general medical fields.

(Sue Norman E-Streams 2005-01-00)

This is a good book, conceptually sound and likely to be useful for anyone who is interested in understanding patients or clients from a traditional psychodynamic perspective.

(Jay M. Pomerantz, M.D. Psychiatric Services 2005-01-00)

About the Author:

Scott R. Ahles, M.D., is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.

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