Download Author: Karasu, Toksoz, M.D.

5 eBooks available.

Psychotherapy with Dying Patients

Death is an existential fact, and it is more than likely the model for all human feelings of abandonment and separation. Is it, then, so difficult to understand why one should not feel anxious when faced with leaving the life he finds so rewarding and enriching? What we have in mind is the shared denial of death, in both the patient and the psychotherapist, and that the current thinking is overwhelming on the passionate, pleasurable, and sexual aspects of the human experience. After all, if we actually believe in the reality-principle, death is, or should be, as much a part of our discussions as life, else we deny something vital to our patients and, of course, to ourselves. If we are going to be able to offer a therapy for the dying person, then the psychotherapist must examine his own attitudes towards his very own death. It is the countertransference aspects that must first be understood. It has been our impression that psychotherapists are especially reluctant to face up to death in their personal lives and in their professional fields. For the most, the psychotherapist relegates matters of dying to other specialties or paramedical professions. It is only within the last decade that the psycho therapist has allowed himself some closeness with the dying person. (26 pp.)

General Principles of Psychotherapy

Broadly, psychotherapy can be described as a mutual therapist-patient endeavor to investigate and understand the nature of the latter’s mental distress for the purpose of providing relief from his suffering. (18 pp.)

Psychotherapy with Physically Ill Patients

Explains some of the specific practices of long-term individual psychotherapy with patients who have a medical illness, addressing psychological components in initiation, maintenance, or etiology of the disease. (27 pp.)

Specialized Techniques in Individual Psychotherapy

If social and economic developments and the complexities of our culture force us to develop better, more specific, and more successful psychotherapies, this is only to be welcomed. The more specific and better conceptualized the hypotheses concerning a given form of psychopathology and its treatment, the more effective a therapy it is likely to be. The present volume is dedicated to that proposition. We have asked a large number of psychotherapists with particular knowledge and experience to write about the specific problems and special techniques necessary for the treatment of patients with unique kinds of problems. (842 pp.)

Review:

The collection, by a variety of authors with varied credentials, contains something for everybody, it covers every conceivable orientation. The book is worth study by both beginners and experienced psychotherapists, …the emphasis is on a solid presentation…clearly written and well edited.…I would happily and enthusiastically recommend this book to all who do individual psychotherapy. – Richard D. Chessick M.D., Ph.D.