"These marvelous and gripping case stories touch your mind and heart. Clinicians and students as well as current and prospective clients are treated to a panoramic of what truly compassionate and effective psychotherapy, practiced by masterful therapists, is all about. This is the best book of its kind to come along in years." -- Len Sperry, M.D., Ph.D, author of Handbook of Diagnosis andTreatment of the DSM-IV Personality Disorders "An insightful illustration of the therapeutic relationship and skills. Both students of psychotherapy and practitioners will find Who is Sylvia? a valuable resource." -- Gary D. McKay, author of How You Feel is Upto You; The STEP Programs; Raising Respectful Kids in aRude World "Basic to understanding others, and treating them, is to know your theory and yourself, to know how you know yourself and others. Peven and Shulman use Adler's theory for that purpose and to understand each client's personal theory, their individual, unique lifestyle, the guide to how that person lives. Peven and Shulman treat whole people living whole lives and tell us, in this book, peoples' life stories, the stories of their therapy and the story of the interaction of lives between therapist and patient. These stories of difficult and complex patients and therapies are informative, useful, warm, humane and fulfilling." -- Guy J. Manaster, Ph.D., Professor, Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin "A wonderful book...It is perhaps the best simplification of Adlerian ideas that I have ever read...a "must read" for anyone who identifies themselves as an Adlerian." -- Journal of Individual Psychology
Introduction 1. Psychodynamic Theory 2. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy 3. The Metamorphosis 4. Who Is Sylvia? 5. A Letter to Daddy 6. "Are you lookin' At Me?" 7. The Replacement 8. Icarus 9. To the Manner Born 10. Guilty Pleasures 11. Epilogue Index
Dorothy E. Peven, M.S.W. is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in the Chicago area. She has served as Vice President of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology and has consulted and lectured for the Alfred Adler Institutes in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan.
Bernard H. Shulman, M.D., is a former professor of psychiatry at Northwestern and Loyola Universities. He is the past president of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology and of the International Association of Individual Psychology.