Basic Intensive Psychotherapy

Originally published in 1980, this concise volume provides a clear guide to the practical and technical aspects of intensive psychotherapy - long term therapy with individual adults toward the goals of promoting insight and realigning unconscious defences which inhibit functioning and growth. The author introduces therapists at the start of their career to the basic principles of intensive treatment and discusses the stages of psychotherapy, clarifying relevant issues and pointing out potential obstacles along the way. The book assumes a psychodynamic approach to therapy rather than a purely symptom-oriented one. In Principles and Goals, William Reid focusses on the concept of repair, the freeing of emotional energy so that it becomes available for the client/patient's effective adaptation to their social and emotional environments. The author delineates the professional and human characteristics required of the therapist, noting special challenges for those in training. The book describes the physical conditions of the therapeutic setting and general guidelines for behaviour of patient/client and therapist. It then presents an overview of the three stages of therapy. Throughout the book, short scripts from case studies illustrate the process of treatment and the use of the therapeutic techniques explained. This classic book remains valuable for both newly qualified and experienced therapists and students.

William H. Reid, MD, MPH, has been a psychiatrist and psychotherapist for over 50 years. When Basic Intensive Psychotherapy was first published, he was psychiatry residency director at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and on the adjunct faculties of Northwestern University and Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois. He spent most of his clinical and academic career working with patients and teaching all levels of psychology and psychiatry trainees. Today, he is professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Dell Medical School, and clinical or adjunct professor at Texas Tech and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School; Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), Fellow Emeritus of the American College of Psychiatrists, and author, co-author or editor of some 18 books and hundreds of papers in the field.

1.Principles and Goals 1.1 The Wish-Defence System 1.2 The Therapeutic Process 2. The Participants: Therapist and Patient 2.1 The Therapist 2.2 The Patient 3. The Therapeutic Setting 3.1 Physical Conditions 3.2 Time and Scheduling 3.3 General Behaviour of Patient and Therapist 3.4 The Technical Agreement 4. Opening Phases of Treatment 4.1 The Initial Interviews 4.2 Beginning Therapy 5. The Middle Phase I: Therapeutic Alliance and Transference II: Resistance, Change and Working Through III: Psychotherapeutic Technique: Theory and Intervention 6. Termination 6.1 Criteria for Termination 6.2 Forced and Premature Terminations.