Focal Psychotherapy

Fülszöveg

Pursuíng the search for procedures that will meet the increasing call for less extended forms of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Michael Balint developed the concept of 'focal' psychotherapy, which represents a major advance in this field. This study demonstrates that shorter forms of treatment need be neither superficial nor merely supportive, and evaluates the techniques and processes of focal psychotherapy by means of a detailed description of the interaction between patient and therapist throughout the treatment and follow-up of one patient. The choice of a single 'focus' upon which the course of the therapy may be concentrated represents a new and important departure leading to the shortening of the therapeutic time-scale. In their running commentary on this paradigm, the authors explicate Balint's technique and certain events in the course of treatment. Their subsequent reformulation of this process offers one view of the patient-therapist relationship, which nevertheless... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Pursuíng the search for procedures that will meet the increasing call for less extended forms of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Michael Balint developed the concept of 'focal' psychotherapy, which represents a major advance in this field. This study demonstrates that shorter forms of treatment need be neither superficial nor merely supportive, and evaluates the techniques and processes of focal psychotherapy by means of a detailed description of the interaction between patient and therapist throughout the treatment and follow-up of one patient. The choice of a single 'focus' upon which the course of the therapy may be concentrated represents a new and important departure leading to the shortening of the therapeutic time-scale. In their running commentary on this paradigm, the authors explicate Balint's technique and certain events in the course of treatment. Their subsequent reformulation of this process offers one view of the patient-therapist relationship, which nevertheless remains open to other interpretations and conceptual approaches - a fact that attests to the richness of the therapeutic process described. At the time of his death Michael Balint was collaborating on this book with his wife and Professor Paul H. Ornstein ofthe University of Cincinnati, and the resulting text represents a synoptic view of the concept of focal psychotherapy and its elaboration into a method of treatment that will surely have increasing application in the years to come. About the authors The late Michael Balint was President of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and his wife, Enid Balint, is a practising psychoanalyst. She has recently been appointed Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis at the University of Cincinnati. Paul H. Ornstein is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, and alsó a practising psychoanalyst. Vissza