Talk Is Not Enough: How Psychotherapy Really Works - Hardcover

" Willard Gaylin, M.D., is the author of fifteen books, including Feelings, The Killing of Bonnie Garland, and The Rage Within. He is Clinical, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and cofounder of the Hastings Center, the preeminent institute for the study of ethical issues in the life sciences. For more than thirty years he has been a leading theoretician, educator, and practitioner in the field of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis."

What a great book! Gaylin, a cofounder of the Hastings Center and a practicing psychotherapist, has written a clear and focused explanation of psychotherapeutic practice. In simple language accessible to lay readers, Gaylin describes what psychotherapy is, how it differs from other types of psychological treatments, its goals, and the process of the therapy itself. Drawing on his own experiences and those of his colleagues and predecessors, Gaylin illustrates the different steps in the process. The history of psychoanalysis is briefly covered, and Gaylin also assesses who typically can and cannot be helped by this type of therapy. He concludes with a discussion of what the roles of patient and therapist should be, the different schools of psychotherapy--what they have in common and how they differ--and what questions to ask a prospective therapist. While many recent titles in this subject area are aimed at the therapy practitioner (e.g., Inside Therapy, LJ 9/15/98) or focus on tracing the history and development of discrete branches of psychotherapy (e.g., What Is Psychotherapy?, edited by Jeffrey K. Zeig and Michael Munion, Jossey-Bass, 1990; Developments in Psychotherapy, edited by Windy Dryden, Sage, 1996), Gaylin's book stands nearly alone (along with Dennis Brown and Jonathan Pedder's hard-to-get Introduction to Psychotherapy, Tavistock, 1991, and Robert Langs's Rating Your Psychotherapist, 1989. o.p.) as a broad-based overview of the field for the potential consumer. Gaylin is less focused on the contemporary state of psychotherapy than Brown and Pedder and more conversational than Lang. An excellent book for anyone in or thinking of therapy and for anyone with questions about this much misunderstood field; recommended for all public libraries.
-David E. Valencia, Federal Way Regional Lib., Seattle
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