Psychodynamic Concepts in General Psychiatry

Edited by Harvey J. Schwartz, M.D., Efrain Bleiberg, M.D., and Sidney H. Weissman, M.D.

1995
518 Pages
Editorial Reviews

ISBN 978-0-88048-536-4
Item #8536

List Price: $154.00
APA Members: $123.20
APA Resident-Fellow Members: $115.50

Description
Contents
Editorial Reviews
About the Authors

Psychodynamic Concepts in General Psychiatry brings together 37 nationally recognized psychodynamic psychiatrists who discuss in detail their understanding of how to work with specific types of patients. Separate chapters on clinical syndromes, including some of the most challenging that psychiatrists encounter—for example, in self-destructive, posttraumatic, and abused patients—provide both a historical review of dynamic perspectives and a detailed discussion of differential diagnosis and treatment selection for each disorder. Extensive clinical examples illustrating the underlying psychodynamic conflicts of patients with these disorders are presented as well.

Also addressed in this volume are the psychological aspects of the settings in which therapy is practiced and the ways in which those settings affect both the psychiatrist and the patient. The final section contains chapters on current topics of particular relevance: the psychology of prescribing and taking medication, the meaning and impact of interruptions in treatment, and the provocative findings of new outcome research and cost-offset studies. The book closes with a recommended curriculum for training in psyschodynamic psychiatry.

Basic Concepts.
Basic principles of psychodynamic psychiatry. The psychodynamic formulation. The self as a clinical instrument.
Clinical Settings.
The inpatient unit. The emergency room. The medical hospital. The community clinic. The managed care setting. The outpatient psychotherapy clinic.
Clinical Syndromes.
The psychotic patient. The self-destructive patient. The narcissistic patient. The patient with a neurosis. The depressed patient. The substance-abusing patient. The panic patient. The posttraumatic patient. The depressed male homosexual patient. The patient with a history of childhood sexual abuse or incest. The psychosomatic patient. The patient with bulimia. The bereaved patient. The suicidal adolescent patient. The depressed geriatric patient.
Special Topics.
The psychology of prescribing and taking medication. Interruptions of treatment. Research in psychodynamic therapy. A recommended curriculum for psychodynamic psychiatry. Index.

Harvey J. Schwartz, M.D., is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was the Director of Residency Education for 10 years. He is also a member of the Philadelphia Association of Psychoanalysis. Dr. Schwartz is the editor of Psychotherapy of the Combat Veteran and Bulimia: Psychoanalytic Treatment Therapy and is the coeditor of Illness in the Analyst: Implications for the Treatment Relationship. Dr. Schwartz is in private practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Philadelphia.

Efrain Bleiberg, M.D., is the Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff of The Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas and is a training supervising analyst in the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Bleiberg was included in Good Housekeeping magazines 1993 list of the nation's best mental health experts.

Sidney Weissman, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at the Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University of Chicago, where he also serves as Director of Ourpatient and Emergency Psychiatry. He is graduate of the institute of Psychoanalysis of Chicago and has taught in the Institute's postgradudate program. He is past President of the American Association of Director of Residency Training and presently serves as President of the American Board of Adolescent Psychiatry.

It is well organized, generally well written, incredibly thorough, and loaded with cogent clinical examples and vignettes. Each of the three dozen analytically trained contributors is an experienced clinician and ably shares his or her expertise. . . . It is an invaluable reference and should be picked up by a psychiatric resident or new practitioner when he or she changes treatment settings, and by all practitioners when they are faced with a challenging patient or a treatment impasse.—Psychiatric Services

This book is a useful reference for any mental health professional. The fundamental principles of psychodynamic theories and the understanding that they provide can only benefit a clinician, even if the majority of treatment is medication-focused. This book illustrates this point clearly. Psychodynamic Concepts in General Psychiatry would be a worthy addition to any health sciences library or bookstore and would make an excellent text for psychiatry residents.—Doody's Health Sciences Book Review Journal

In a volume that is almost encyclopedic in its depth and breadth, nearly two-score contributing authors underline the importance of psychodynamic theory and practice for modern clinical psychiatry. With a multitude of well-chosen case vignettes, they demonstrate the utility of a psychodynamic approach for the evaluation and treatment of patients with a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders in a wide variety of clinical settings, and they emphasize the necessity of including the teaching of psychodynamic principles in psychiatric training programs.—John C. Nemiah, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, Dartmouth Medical School , Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Psychodynamic Concepts in General Psychiatry stands as testimony to the resilience and vigor of the psychoanalytic method. The contributors—an all-star cast of analytically trained psychiatrists—are convincing in their demonstration of the applicability of the analytic perspective to a wide variety of medical settings and ailments. Especially welcome are the many vignettes, often of strikingly creative work, that show how psychodynamic formulations enrich psychiatric practice.—Peter D. Kramer, M.D., Author of Listening to Prozac

Careful editing lends form and consistency to a text that could easily have become fragmented and repetitive without it. Instead, the pieces work together cumulatively and synergistically which is a rarity in a multiauthored volume.—General Hospital Psychiatry

This medium-sized book is most appropriate at the resident level, though most practitioners could read it with profit. . . . [F]or the highly targeted and directed nature of the entire text, it must be singled out as of particular relevance to those teaching residents. In this book. . . psychoanalysis is alive and well, and is a source of wellness that can be brought to others.—Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association