Deconstruction of Psychotherapy - Softcover

Karasu, T. Byram

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568218214 ISBN 13: 9781568218212

Publisher: Jason Aronson Inc. Publishers, 1996

Synopsis

Psychotherapists have a love-hate relationship with theories, often clinging to those that are unsatisfying and incomplete. Deconstruction of Psychotherapy examines the functions and failings of theory, and, most critically for clinicians, the gap between theory and practice. It looks at the purposes and perils of ardent allegiances irrespective of a particular school or strategy. This means examining the many uses and abuses of the clinician's belief system. While therapists need to be committed to a body of beliefs, an inability to look beyond it can be countertherapeutic; hiding behind a theory may be as bad as not having one to relinquish. Moreover, deconstruction of the positive and negative elements of theory reveals therapists' uncertainty as they acknowledge that one of their compasses resides somewhere between myth and truth.

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Review

In Dr. Karasu's hands the modern penchant for historical deconstruction becomes a powerful instrument for the analysis and clarification of the bewildering variety of clinical procedures currently labeled 'psychotherapy.' His tripartite categorization of those procedures as 'dynamic, ' 'behavioral, ' and 'experiential' provides the basis for his further delineation of the specific features that the individual psychotherapies share in common on the one hand, and that on the other, define each as a distinct entity in its own right. In so doing, Dr. Karasu has fashioned a detailed and illuminating map of the current jungle of proliferating psychotherapies that will serve as an invaluable guide for clinicians and investigators alike.

In a scholarly overview of the major trends of contemporary psychotherapy, Dr. Karasu offers the reader a clear and comprehensive synthesis of the essential aspects of psychodynamic, behavioral, and experiential psychotherapeutic approaches. His deconstructive methodology naturally leads to a focus on major controversies affecting this field and the relevant research questions derived from these controversies. While critically exploring contemporary theories of mind, Dr. Karasu raises challenging questions about the relationship between theory and practice, between specific and non-specific effects of psychotherapeutic interventions, and between clinical practice and research in psychotherapy. The reader may agree or not with Dr. Karasu's rejection of all major present theory formulations, but will be enriched by the fundamental questions posed in this book. For the psychiatric resident, the practicing psychotherapist, and the mental health professional facing the contemporary psychotherapeutic scene, this volume offers a clarifying and organizing perspective on the essential tenets of competing theories, the corresponding research approaches, and a thoughtful and wise proposal regarding crucial common therapeutic factors across the wide spectrum of current psychotherapies.--Otto F. Kernberg

About the Author

T. Byram Karasu, M.D., a graduate of the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, is presently the Silverman Professor and University Chairman of the Deparmtent of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstien College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, and the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychotherapy. He is the author or editor of 20 books, including two novels, Of God and Madness and The Gotham Chronicles-The Culture of Sociopathy; a book of poetry, Rags of My Soul; the seminal work, Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders; and two best sellers, The Art of Serenity and The Spirit of Happiness. Dr. Karasu is a scholar, renowned clinician, teacher and lecturer, and the recipient of numerous awards. He lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jason Aronson Inc. Publishers
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1568218214
• ISBN 13: 9781568218212
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160