The Form and Technique of Psychotherapy

By I.H. Paul

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226649997
• ISBN13: 9780226649993
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 299 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Form and Technique of Psychotherapy

The Form and Technique of Psychotherapy presents a comprehensive theoretical and practical guide to the distinctive craft of psychotherapy. Defining psychotherapy as a professionally autonomous service, I. H. Paul develops a rigorous therapeutic method that is traditional, psychoanalytic, and non-directive, requiring exact, technical skills. Written primarily as a teaching and learning aid, the work integrates two major schools of therapy: client-centered counseling and psychoanalysis. In combining the nondirective features of the former and the interpretive methods of the latter, Paul shows how a therapist can participate actively and effectively in the therapeutic process without interfering with the patient's sense of autonomy and responsibility. Paul explains the application of his technique through a series of didactic studies. Paradigms, consisting of simulated transcripts and hypothetical excepts of therapy sessions, along with prototypic situations and problems, illustrate various aspects of the therapeutic process - orientation and format, timing, interpretation, and resistance. An analysis of each paradigm specifies and exemplifies the technical principles, and shows explicitly how the theory is put into practice. What emerges is a relatively unstructured but totally unambiguous, unique form of psychotherapy. The Form and Technique of Psychotherapy is a systematic account of this method's clinical and conceptual bases. It will serve as a textbook for students of psychotherapy, but will also interest practioners as well as nonprofessionals concerned in the theory and practice of psychotherapy. --- from book's dustjacket