In The Illusion of Psychotherapy William Epstein asserts that psychotherapy is probably ineffective and possibly harmful. He maintains that there is no credible clinical evidence that psychotherapy is effective in handling personal or social problems, or that it is more effective than other modes of treatment. The theories that underpin clinical practice remain speculative and their influence over social policy are more ideological than scientific. A skeptical public and its government would be better served, Epstein says, by credible evidence of outcomes. His analysis focuses on whether psychotherapy is effective against a variety of unwanted behaviors, such as drug addiction and depression. The nation's social problems are due to the inadequacies of its core social institutions: families, communities, education, and jobs. Social problems emerge because many people are brought up in deficient families, live in dangerous communities, lack education and jobs, and have few or no routes out of poverty. Poor people are exposed to unrelenting risks to their physical and mental health. It is possible to remedy most deficiencies through human services that compensate for these failed social institutions. This position is inevitably unpopular in psychotherapeutic circles and in light of current political preferences since it requires massive new resources and extensive redistribution of existing resources. The extent of society's problems reflects the degree to which deficits in basic social institutions have been tolerated. Basic services have been lacking while psychotherapy diverts our impulse to address poverty into ineffective strategies. In a challenging conclusion, Epstein urges society to solve its problems by confronting the reality implied by the failure of psy-chotherapy's minhnal interventions: to acknowledge that more is necessary to resolve social need. This leads to general theoretical concerns about theory as such. The Illusion of Psychotherapy will be compelling reading for psychologists, psychotherapists, social scientists, and policymakers.

Mourning the loss of core illusions and coping with the impact of disillusionment are critical issues in psychotherapy. In this informative and readable book, Teitelbaum explores this therapeutic issue in depth from a developmental, theoretical, and clinical perspective and emphasizes its particular importance in the treatment of depressed and narcissistic patients.

This book explores and provides an overview of the Norwegian psychologist Jan Smedslund's life work on Psycho-logic. His contributions to science have been radical not only in challenging the empirical foundation of psychology, but also in seeking to develop a viable alternative. This book brings together various reflections on his key contributions from the 1960s to the present day. The volume features three chapters by Jan Smedslund, offering his updated views on psychological science and psychotherapy. It also features contributions from several scholars that critically evaluates his legacy. His seminal ideas are discussed, revised and expanded upon and the questions raised are put in relevant historical and interdisciplinary context. Respect for Thought is a valuable resource for psychological researchers, historians of psychology, cultural psychologists, critical psychologists, theoretical psychologists, clinical psychologists and psychotherapists, social scientists, philosophers of psychology, and philosophers of science.

This work challenges the notion that anxiety and depression amount to a mental illness denoting that something is wrong with the individual sufferer. Instead, anxiety and depression are described as perfectly rational responses to difficulties in the sufferer's world, experienced subjectively by that person. An essential contrast is drawn between objective conceptions of normality (what reality ought to be as per commercial and other objectifying sources) and the reality of the individual's subjective experience of the world (abuse, unemployment, and so on). Chapters include tackling the myth of normality; examining shyness; and analysing the way in which assumptions behind the use of language can foster anxiety and depression. The book's primary purpose is to explain the meaning of anxiety as experienced by the sufferer. These insights also lead to a view, by way of secondary purpose, that the role of the therapist is not in 'curing' the individual, but rather to negotiate demystification and to provide insight into the effects of the problems in the sufferer's world, based on the sufferer and the therapist's shared subjective understanding.

“A warm, profound and cleareyed memoir. . . this wise and sympathetic book’s lingering effect is as a reminder that a deeper and more companionable way of life lurks behind our self-serious stories."—Oliver Burkeman, New York Times Book Review A remarkable exploration of the therapeutic relationship, Dr. Mark Epstein reflects on one year’s worth of therapy sessions with his patients to observe how his training in Western psychotherapy and his equally long investigation into Buddhism, in tandem, led to greater awareness—for his patients, and for himself For years, Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. Content to use his training in mindfulness as a private resource, he trusted that the Buddhist influence could, and should, remain invisible. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings, he was surprised to learn how many were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological, emotional, and the spiritual, he soon realized, were not as distinct as one might think. In The Zen of Therapy, Dr. Epstein reflects on a year’s worth of selected sessions with his patients and observes how, in the incidental details of a given hour, his Buddhist background influences the way he works. Meditation and psychotherapy each encourage a willingness to face life's difficulties with courage that can be hard to otherwise muster, and in this cross-section of life in his office, he emphasizes how therapy, an element of Western medicine, can in fact be considered a two-person meditation. Mindfulness, too, much like a good therapist, can “hold” our awareness for us—and allow us to come to our senses and find inner peace. Throughout this deeply personal inquiry, one which weaves together the wisdom of two worlds, Dr. Epstein illuminates the therapy relationship as spiritual friendship, and reveals how a therapist can help patients cultivate the sense that there is something magical, something wonderful, and something to trust running through our lives, no matter how fraught they have been or might become. For when we realize how readily we have misinterpreted our selves, when we stop clinging to our falsely conceived constructs, when we touch the ground of being, we come home.

The ways we know, think and believe about a whole variety of key areas - different forms of discourse, psychotherapy as well as religion - have much more in common than is usually perceived. Through a series of fascinating parallels running across different disciplines, Jacobs demonstrates the possible analysis of modes of thinking and belief - from intuitive pre-thinking, through authoritative-driven thinking and belief, and personal and polymathic knowledge, to unknowing, the last concept being one that is shared by Bion, Winnicott and major mystical tradition. Using this theoretical model the book provides a map to how clients and indeed therapists might think and believe, suggesting ways in which they may be supported as they shift through different modes, with all the anxiety that disillusionment brings.

In Practicing Psychotherapy in Constructed Reality: Ritual, Charisma, and Enhanced Client Outcomes, Stephen Bacon charts a radical and provocative new direction forward for psychotherapy. Based on the research finding that techniques have no inherent power, and the insights of constructionism, Bacon explores new ways of understanding therapeutic rituals, therapist charisma, and client-centered therapy. Special emphasis is given to an analysis of the work of master therapists, and all of the concepts are illustrated with numerous clinical examples. Finally, Bacon develops a geography of constructed reality which pragmatically supports deliberate practice and therapist mindfulness.