Complexity of the Self: A Developmental Approach to Psychopathology and Therapy

ISBN-13: 9780898620122 / Angielski / Twarda / 1987 / 248 str.

V. F. Guidano; Vittorio Guidano; Vittorio F. Guidano

Opis

In this profound work, Vittorio Guidano expands upon his earlier seminal contributions on the application of cognitive and developmental principles to individuals struggling with various forms of psychopathology. Here, he fully develops the idea that individuals' experience, both positive and negative, are powerfully influenced by their personal "psychological organizations." Focusing primarily on the eating disorders, the phobias (with agoraphobia as the prototype) obsessive-compulsive patterns, and depression, Guidano illustrates how early developmental experiences and ongoing psychological processes may collude to perpetuate dysfunctional patterns and personal distress. This timely and provocative volume offers exciting new ideas about how to conceptualize and facilitate change in the "self system." With the rare combination of his Renaissance intellect and integrative practical expertise, Guidano has been able to draw together many disparate themes from object relations theory, ego psychology, attachment theory, constructivist models of human cognition, and lifespan developmental psychology. It is must reading for the practicing professional, the helping apprentice, and anyone interested in glimpsing the cutting edge at the growing interface between cognitive and clinical science.

Spis treści

I. Theoretical Principles
1. Introductory Notes on Self-Organized Complexity and a Systems Approach
2. A Motor-Evolutionary Perspective on Human Knowledge
3. On Selfhood Processes, Attachment, and Identity
II. Developmental and Organizational Models
4. Development
5. Organization
III. Toward a Systems/Process-Oriented Psychopathology
6. Patterns and Processes
7. The Depressive Cognitive Organization
8. The Agoraphobic Cognitive Organization
9. The Eating Disorders Cognitive Organization
10. The Obsessive Cognitive Organization
11. Principles of Lifespan Developmental Psychopathology
12. Concluding Remarks
Appendix: Some Strategic Principles for Cognitive Therapy
References

O autorze

Vittorio F. Guidano, MD, founded the Rome Center for Cognitive Therapy, where he serves as Staff Psychiatrist, and is a founding member of the Italian Association for Cognitive Behavioral Therapies. From 1976 to 1986 he was Assistant Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychopathology at the School of Medicine of the University of Rome.