On Learning from Patient PB

By Patrick J. Casement

Book Overview

On Learning from the Patient is concerned with the potential for psychoanalytic thinking to become self-perpetuating. Patrick Casement explores afresh the dynamics of the helping relationship - learning to recognize how patients offer cues to the therapeutic experience that they are unconsciously in search of. Using many telling clinical examples, he illustrates how, through trial identification, he has learned to monitor the implications of his own contributions to a session from the viewpoint of the patient. He thus shows how, with the aid of this internal supervision, many initial failures to respond appropriately can be remedied and even used to the benefit of the therapeutic work. By learning to distinguish better what helps the therapeutic process from what hinders it, ways are discovered whereby the circularity of pre-conception can more effectively be avoided by those who aim to understand the unconscious of others. From this lively examination of key clinical issues, the author comes to see psychoanalytic therapy as a process of re-discovering theory - and developing a technique that is more specifically related to the individual patient.The dynamics illustrated here, particularly the processes of interactive communication and containment, occur in any helping relationship and are applicable throughout the caring professions. Patrick Casement's unusually frank presentation of his own work, aided by his lucid and non-technical language, allows wide scope for readers to form their own ideas about the approach to technique he describes. This book, together with its sequel Further Learning from the Patient, will be invaluable to trainee and practising analysts or therapists, and those teaching in related professions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415025532
• ISBN13: 9780415025539
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding!

I am a staff psychiatrist at an academic institution and I purchased this book for use in psychotherapy supervision with psychiatry residents. I am finding it is a great read for residents at all levels; practical for PGY-II's and helps III's and IV's take their therapy to a deeper level. Definitely recommended!

My 100-word book review

Patrick Casement's honesty in writing this book is an inspiration to those of us aiming to be counsellors. Not many therapists would reveal and discuss their own mistakes and oversights so openly, with a view to helping others learn from them. Casement promotes active listening skills and use of the "internal supervisor" to gain awareness both of the client's and one's own internal processes. Also key to his approach is a willingness to embrace uncertainty and not to make snap judgements, in effect to make use of what the poet John Keats called "negative capability." I highly recommend this book.

Pas de Deux

In the "pas de deux", the dance between the therapist and the patient, so much goes on it's nearly impossible to get a grip on it all and Casement does a beautiful job of describing this. So much of what he "knows" he knows in retrospect, but such is the stuff of case histories. Meanwhile, when you're together, the dance goes on! What I liked especially about this book is that he makes an attempt to be humble in the presence of his patients; an attempt anyway. If you've ever been in the helping professions, and can get your ego out of the way, that's just the way it is. You get your degree, you read and read, you have your own analysis or whatever, but what comes up in the therapy room never seems to have been covered in the text books. So you learn-as-you-go. His carefully delineated case histories take you step-by-step through the complicated process, and you will learn a lot from this book -- if nothing else you can take heart that it's a very complicated "dance" indeed. You can be taught the steps, but putting it together with your "partner" will be yours alone!

The single best psychotherapy book

This is the single best psychotherapy book I have ever read! It teaches listening skills for things only subtley said. It presents respectful ways of understanding the psychotherapy process. A person who can really learn from the patient will automatically become a wonderful therapist, a person who cannot learn will only be a hack. Read or be a hack.

A wonderful book that captures the meaning of understanding.

I found Casement to be fascinating in his explanation of the interaction between he and his patients. He described his thoughts and ideas in an uncomplicated manner and as a student I found this to be most helpful. After reading his book, a lot of things finally made sense to me. I strongly recommend reading this book to all clinicians as it can be used within any framework and theory