Adaptation And Psychotherapy

While the loss of a loved one through either death, separation, or divorce is a normal human experience, it can arouse underlying conflicts that trigger pathological reactions. For clinicians working with individuals who suffer from such pathological grief, this volume integrates theory, practice, and research to describe a time-limited, interpretive group therapy approach. Demonstrated to be successful in a large-scale controlled clinical trial, the approach provides an innovative alternative to such traditional forms of treatment as individual psychotherapy or group counseling. The volume begins with a review of epidemiological data, an examination of specific issues such as the distinction between normal and abnormal reactions to loss, and a summary of major psychoanalytic theories of pathological grief. Also discussed are societal changes that have affected the resources available to loss patients. Then, a step-by-step description of the Short-Term Group Therapy Program is provided. It includes patient selection and preparation, group composition, and therapist technique. Clinical material illustrates themes and roles as they evolve from the beginning of treatment through termination. The clinical trial research that was conducted as part of the program is described in detail and its main outcome findings are discussed. In addition, results concerning the patient characteristic known as psychological mindedness and the process variable known as psychodynamic work are presented. Finally, the book addresses future directions concerning the group treatment of loss patients. This practical volume, with its detailed instructions and review of research results, will be an invaluable resource to all professionals in psychiatry, psychology, social work, occupational therapy, and nursing who are interested in group forms of psychotherapy and/or problems associated with loss. Clinical researchers will also find the book of interest, and it will serve as a valuable text for graduate level courses that focus on psychotherapy techniques, group psychotherapy, and approaches that deal with special patient populations.

Adaption and Psychotherapy gives a concentrated but complete picture of Robert Langs’s adaptive clinical theory, and also expands Langs’s treatment of adaptation by examining Carl Jung’s theory of adaptation. This book articulates Jung’s positive and clinical understanding of adaptation in a way that allows comparison to Langs’s adaptive paradigm as well as a creative synthesis of the two approaches. The result is a development of Langs’s adaptive paradigm and an expansion of clinical theory and technique that is valuable for both Freudian and Jungian analysts.

This important text not only brings together a synthesis of Robert Langs' most important ideas and the latest developments in his thinking - many of them of utmost importance to all manner of therapists - it also presents them in a form that is accessible to the reader new to the communicative approach, as well as those with more experience. With separate sections on theory and practice that clearly define the basic principles that apply to all forms of psychotherapy and counselling, the book is an excellent starting point as a basic introduction to, and reconsideration of, psychotherapy and counselling for trainees and practitioners.

A Depth Psychology Study of Immigration and Adaptation: The Migrant’s Journey brings current academic research from a range of disciplines into a 12-stage model of human migration. Based on Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, this depth psychology model addresses pre-migration reasons for leaving, the ordeals of the journey and challenges of post-migration adaptation. One-third of migrants return to homelands while those who remain in newlands face the triple challenges of building a new life, a new identity and sense of belonging. While arrivées carry homelands within, their children, the second generation, born and raised in the newland usually have access to both cultures which enables them to make unique contributions to society. Vital to successful newland adaptation is the acceptance and support of immigrants by host countries. A Depth Psychology Study of Immigration and Adaptation will be an important resource for academics and students in the social sciences, clinical psychologists, health care and social welfare workers, therapists of all backgrounds, policy makers and immigrants themselves seeking an understanding of the inner experiences of migration.

The major goal of this book is to explore and integrate all that is scientifically known about the utility of magical plans and strategies for coping with life's inevitable absurdities. Make-believe has great adaptive value and helps the average individual to function better in cultures saturated with puzzling contradictions. This book traces the origins of pretending (illusion-construction) and the developmental phases of this skill. Further, it analyzes how parents depend on pretending to secure conformity and self-control from their children. It unravels the ways in which make-believe is utilized to defend against death-anxiety and feelings of fragility. It examines the relationship between pretending and the classical defense mechanisms -- and particularly weighs the evidence bearing on the potential protective power of embracing religious beliefs. Finally, it defines the diverse contributions of make-believe to the construction of the self-concept, the defensive maneuvers typifying psychopathology, and the maintenance of somatic health. In short, this book pulls together a spectrum of scientific information concerning the defensive value of illusory make-believe in coping with those aspects of life -- such as death, loss, suffering, and injustice -- that are experienced as unreasonable and beyond understanding. The volume is unique not only in the breadth of the literature it analyzes but also in demonstrating the contribution of make-believe to both the psychological and somatic aspects of behavior. No previous work has documented in such detail and across so many domains how basic the capacity to engage in make-believe is to human adaptation.

In this landmark work, Richard Lazarus -- one of the world's foremost authorities -- offers a comprehensive treatment of the psychology of emotion, its role in adaptation, and the issues that must be addressed to understand it. The work provides a complete theory of emotional processes, explaining how different emotions are elicited and expressed, and how the emotional range of individuals develops over their lifetime. The author's approach puts emotion in a central role as a complex, patterned, organic reaction to both daily events and long-term efforts on the part of the individual to survive, flourish, and achieve. In his view, emotions cannot be divorced from other functions--whether biological, social, or cognitive--and express the intimate, personal meaning of what individuals experience. As coping and adapting processes, they are seen as part of the ongoing effort to monitor changes, stimuli, and stresses arising from the environment. After defining emotion and discussing issues of classification and measurement, Lazarus turns to the topics of motivation, cognition, and causality as key concepts in this theory. Next he looks at individual emotions, both negative and positive, and examines their development in terms of social influences and individual events. Finally, he considers the long-term consequences of emotion on physical health and well-being, and the treatment and prevention of emotional dysfunction. The book draws together the relevant research from a wide variety of sources, and distills the author's pioneering work in the field over the last forty years. As a comprehensive treatment of the emotions, the book will interest students, clinicians, and researchers involved in personality, social and clinical psychology, as well as cognitive and developmental psychology. It may also be used as a supplemental textbook in courses on the psychology of adjustment, emotion, and feeling.