Object Relations Psychotherapy: An Individualized and Interactive Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment

By Cheryl Glickauf-Hughes, Marolyn Wells, Marolyn Wells

Book Overview

"Glickauf-Hughes and Wells present a clear and well-organized review of personality development according to object relations theorists. They offer an explanation and critique of each major theorist, note issues on which there is disagreement (along with areas of investigation not fully explored), and present implications for treatment. Concepts are well defined, and one gets the sense of a cohesive body of knowledge (possibly more cohesive than it actually is). Those unfamiliar with object-relations theory will have a good outline; those who know enough to be confused will find some clarification."
-Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765705184
• ISBN13: 9780765705181
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Jason Aronson
• Length: 504 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

a must have

if you are into developmental pychotherapy, this book is a classical must have about cliens' changing object relations with the therapist and others, and how to treat it practically.

Practical wisdom

This book will be invaluable to any practicing psychotherapist. Many real life examples are given for all the types of personality disorders that are presented in the book. The text is clear and straight-forward;uncluttered with jargon.

Pithy, yet accessible to the novice psych student

This book was helpful to me as an undergraduate studying within an independent-learning model. I appreciated that Glickauf-Hughes and Wells defined their terms quite specifically to psychodynamic theory and took pains to point out when certain theorists were more arbitrary in their use of "ego", for example. The entire first chapter is an excellent overview the major variations and evolution of this continuum of theories, and the subsequent chapters offer specific applications and brief case histories that, I am certain, would be very useful for the more advanced practitioner. The text is lucid and conveys complex points with brevity--not a small task for so many psychological texts. The reason I only gave it four stars is because it doesn't include any refutation of the "refrigerator mom" theory (for one) as a cause for schizophrenia--or do psychoanalysts still believe this to be true? But even if you do not agree with psychodynamic theory, this is a useful text for anyone investigating Western Psychology's explanation of the many permutations and pitfalls that occur when one's 'self' relates to 'other.'