Theories Of Psychopathology

Book is used on many psychoanalytic training courses, including in China, and new edition brings it up to date * Covers classic analysts such as Kohut and contemporary ones such as Kernberg * Offers a comprehensive guide to object relations theory and practice

With its simple, respectful, user-friendly tone, the first edition of Inside Out and Outside In quickly became a beloved book among mental health practitioners in a variety of disciplines. The second edition continues in this tradition with chapters revised to reflect the most current theory and clinical practice. In addition, it offers exciting new chapters, on attachment, relational, and intersubjective theories, respectively, as well as on trauma.

Psychological theory has traditionally attempted to explain events in terms of motivation, emotion, or cognition. Over the past decade, psychology has come to be viewed as a paradigmatic science; the new paradigm being the understanding of behavior in terms of cognitive representations. This cognitive revolution has fostered a view of the passing of information back and forth between perceptual, memory, and motor components of an integrated system, known as the ?computational metaphor.? With cognition as the new paradigm, can we expect that the explanatory scope of psychology will be clarified? Will a cognitive perspective be extended to phenomena that have traditionally fallen under the rubric of motivation and emotion? The psychologists involved in this volume of the Nebraska Symposium address these questions specifically. Their contributions stimulate a hypothesis that the cognitive paradigm has begun to move psychology toward a ?unified field theory? of behavior and experience. Herbert A. Simon tests the limits of a pure information processing paradigm. A basic tenet of this theoretical approach is that information exists independent of the medium by which it is represented. By analyzing the information processing capabilities of nonbiological systems, or ?artificial intelligence,? we may determine which aspects of motivation and emotion require the biological substrate of cognition. Muriel D. Lezak raises a similar question by focusing on the biological substrate itself and by analyzing the constraints and determinations that it imposes. Howard Gardner considers the medium and the information it processes; thus he lays a conceptual foundation for making the facts of biological brain science congruent with the richness of human behavior and experience.

Throughout the past 30 years, there have been significant developments in theory and research relating family variables to various psychopathologies. The potential importance of such efforts is obviously great, given the implications that reliable and valid findings would hold for treatment and preventive inter ventions across a variety of settings and populations. The purpose of this volume is to present a critical evaluation of this field of inquiry through a detailed assessment of the theoretical perspectives, the methodological issues, and the substantive findings that have characterized family studies of psychopathology during the past several decades. The book is divided into four parts, each con taining contributions from leading researchers and theorists in the field. The first part, "Background," presents a review of the major streams of influence that have shaped the development and the present character of the field. The second part, "Conceptual Foundations," contains presentations of gen eral models and orientations relevant to family studies of psychopathology. In most cases, a particular theoretical perspective provides the primary underpin ning of the approach, the exception to this format being the family model of David Reiss based on the concept of the family paradigm. The major objective of this part is to present a broad yet detailed set of chapters that address the conceptual status of the field. It is hoped that this material will provide a rich background against which subsequent discussions of specific theories, methods, and findings can be more fully appreciated.

Models and theories of psychopathology and their associated clinical practice do not represent scientific fact so much as a variation in perspective within psychopathology itself. Several favoured models exist within any society at a given time, and as well as changing historically over time, they also differ culturally between societies. This book examines: . the similarities, differences and points of integration in the main models of psychopathology . how the theoretical conceptualizations underpinning these models are reflected in the theory and the clinical practice of different schools of psychotherapy . how various models are used in everyday practice . whether clinicians adhere to the rules of a given model or whether, in fact, there is more integration in practice than there appears to be in theoretical conceptualizations. Models of Psychopathology is aimed at advanced undergraduates and postgraduate students of clinical psychology, counselling psychology, psychotherapy and counselling. It will also be of interest to therapy students in professional training courses and experienced clinicians who want to know more about this aspect of psychotherapy.

Personality and Everyday Functioning covers the foundations of personality theory and the impact of personality on normal functioning. Leading personality researchers present chapters on major theories of personality, such as psychoanalytic, developmental, behavioral, and constructivist, to name a few.