Concise Guide to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Principles and Techniques of Brief, Intermittent, and Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy » (3rd Edition)

Robert J. Ursano, M.D., is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, in Bethesda, Maryland. He is also on the teaching faculty of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute in Washington, D.C.

Stephen M. Sonnenberg, M.D., is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, in Bethesda, Maryland, and Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. He is also a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute, based in Austin, Texas.

Susan G. Lazar, M.D., is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, in Bethesda, Maryland, and at the George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. She is also a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute in Washington, D.C.

Developing skills in psychodynamic psychotherapy and its techniques is a lifetime endeavor. The third edition of this volume from American Psychiatric Publishing's enduringly popular Concise Guides series serves as an excellent starting point for mastering these vital skills—skills that can be applied to many other psychiatric treatment modalities, including other psychotherapies, medication management, consultation-liaison psychiatry, outpatient and emergency room assessment and evaluation, and inpatient treatment.

In a compact guide—complete with glossary, indexes, tables, charts, and relevant references—designed to fit into a lab coat pocket, the authors

• Provide the clinician with an updated introduction to the concepts and techniques of psychodynamic psychotherapy, describing their usefulness in other treatments. For example, psychodynamic listening and psychodynamic evaluation are best learned in the context of psychodynamic psychotherapy training but are applicable in many other psychiatric diagnostic and treatment methods.

• Convey the excitement and usefulness—as well as the difficulties—of psychodynamic psychotherapy and its techniques, including case examples.

• Show the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy in general, and of psychodynamic psychotherapy in particular—issues of special importance in the evidence-based practice of medicine and mental health care.

• Explain the advantages—and limitations—of each form of psychodynamic psychotherapy: brief, long-term, and intermittent. For example, psychotherapists must be able to recognize patterns of interpersonal interaction without engaging in the "drama." Thus, they must learn to recognize and understand their own reactions as early indicators of events transpiring in the treatment and as potential roadblocks to a successful treatment.

Complementing more detailed, lengthier psychiatry texts, this volume's 15 densely informative chapters cover everything from basic principles to patient evaluation, resistance and defense, transference and countertransference, dreams, beginning and termination of treatment, management of practical problems, brief and supportive psychotherapy, and psychotherapy of borderline personality disorder and other severe character pathologies.

Mental health care professionals everywhere will turn to this practical guide again and again as an invaluable resource in creating and implementing effective treatment plans for their patients.

John K. Larson

This softcover, paperback-sized book contains 15 pithy chapters on the basics of psychodynamic psychotherapy. It was designed to fit easily into a lab coat pocket and is clearly meant to serve as a ready reference to the topic. It was written by three psychiatrists, all faculty at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. The stated purpose is to provide practical, accessible information for psychiatrists and psychiatric residents that can be used in varied settings. It is meant to complement more detailed information found in lengthier psychiatric texts. The targeted audience is psychiatrists and psychiatric residents, but this volume would also be useful to any mental health practitioner. The book covers such topics as basic principles, the prescription of psychotherapy, psychodynamic listening, beginning treatment, resistance, transference, countertransference, dreams, and termination. Each chapter is informed by the authors' knowledge of the resource limitations and time constraints faced by a psychotherapist in a managed-care environment. Each chapter is followed by a brief, up-to-date bibliography. The book also contains numerous tables, an appendix, a glossary, and a useful index. The entire handbook is organized for rapid reference. This little book admirably succeeds in its purpose and should find wide acceptance among practicing psychiatrists, psychiatric residents, and other mental health professionals.