The Self in Process: Toward a Post-Rationalist Cognitive Therapy

ISBN-13: 9780898624472 / Angielski / Twarda / 1991 / 237 str.

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

Opis

In this powerful work, Dr. Guidano critiques the separation of observer and observed, shows how the very meaning of "self" is thus redefined, and delineates the clinical ramifications of the newly conceived self for a "post-rationalist" cognitive therapy. Clinicians, according to Guidano, can do more than help patients change dysfunctional behavior. By directing therapy toward core emotional themes and utilizing the interactional aspects of the therapeutic relationship, practitioners can modify patients' core patterns of self-perception and thereby realize substantive and lasting change. Part I of the volume lays the theoretical groundwork and Part II, replete with case examples, discusses psychotherapeutic applications. In the first part, Guidano explicates his construct of the self, examining the differentiation of self-boundaries, discussing developmental pathways of self-organization, and describing the impact of self-boundaries on lifespan development. In Part II, he constructs his post-rationalist framework for cognitive therapy with discussions of the therapist's attitude, assessment procedures, self-observation method, and the structure and dynamics of therapeutic change. Case illustrations demonstrate how the practitioner, whom he views as "a strategically oriented perturber," can prepare the clinical and interpersonal context; focus and reorder immediate experiencing; and help the patient reconstruct his or her affective style.

Recenzje

This is a creative and thought-provoking work, rich in theoretical ideas and clinical insights, which are well illustrated with extensive case material. At the heart of Guidano's approach lies a passionate and rigorous commitment to a constructivist epistemology and to a view of human beings as self-organizing, self-determining agents, capable of ongoing growth and differentiation. A stimulating and original contribution. --Jeremy D. Safran, Ph.D.

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Guidano provides psychologists, and therapists in particular, a fresh way to conceptualize the role of affect in human experience.

--Contemporary Psychology, 2/3/1991

Spis treści

I. THEORETICAL PREMISES.
1. Selfhood Processes: An Ontological Approach.
2. The Differentiation of Self-Boundaries.
3. The Self-Organization of Personal Meaning Dimensions.
4. Self-Boundaries and Lifespan Development.

II. PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PRINCIPLES.
5. A Post-Rationalist Framework for Cognitive Therapy.
6. Preparing the Clinical and Interpersonal Context.
7. Construing the Therapeutic Setting.
8. Undertaking the Developmental Analysis.
9. Concluding Remarks.

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.