David Malan

The world has long awaited compelling and unmistakable evidence for the validity of dynamic psychotherapy. A review in the present book shows that such evidence has been accumulating over the past ten years. It comes from clinical trials, process research, case studies, and objective physiological measurements concerned with the importance of ex

The world has long awaited compelling and unmistakable evidence for the validity of dynamic psychotherapy. A review in the present book shows that such evidence has been accumulating over the past ten years. It comes from clinical trials, process research, case studies, and objective physiological measurements concerned with the importance of expressing emotions. This book extends the evidence. It provides an in-depth examination of therapy in action, based on verbatim accounts of the treatment of seven patients by the author, using the technique of Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (at times extending to medium-term). This technique has been shown to be both effective and cost-effective with a wide range of patients, including some who are notoriously resistant to psychotherapeutic intervention. The raw data of psychotherapeutic sessions enables the reader to trace the origin of therapeutic effects, which occur immediately in response to the direct experience of hitherto buried feelings and impulses.

Dr Malan's iconic book is firmly established as a classic psychotherapy textbook and it remains extremely popular. The second edition of this highly individual and fascinating text brings theory and practice up to date, while keeping the essential character of the book unchanged.The book offers an invaluable description of dynamic psychotherapy and the theory on which it is based. Through the use of numerous case studies and clinical stories, the book begins by illustrating everyday mental mechanisms, moving on to a discussion of some of the most profound problems experienced by human beings. Practical applications of theory through different techniques are described, from the straightforward to the handling of some of the most complex and dangerous situations likely to be encountered in psychotherapy. Part of the book's unique value is derived from the way in which it distils from psychoanalytic theory the core of scientific truth.Covers the principles of dynamic psychotherapy from the most elementary to some of the most profoundAlways illustrates these with true case studies told as they happenedGives full interpretations and analysisBeautifully written and highly accessible for anyone with a deep interest in people.New material for the second edition includes: the relation with the mother in the male Oedipus complex, disturbances in the relation with siblings, masochism, and the 'compulsion to repeat'.This is an important resource for all psychotherapists of any degree of experience, psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, primary care physicians, mental health nurses and anyone with an interest in the human mind. For psychotherapists in training it remains an outstanding textbook.