Breakdown and Breakthrough examines the essential role of regression in the patient's recovery from mental illness. In light of this Nathan Field reassesses the role of the therapist tracing psychotherapy back to its earliest spiritual roots and comparing modern analytic methods with ancient practices of healing and exorcism. The author uses vivid examples from his psychotherapeutic practice to show how, with the apparent breakdown of the therapeutic method itself, patients can break through to a new level of functioning. The book goes on to consider how psychotherapy has been affected by fundamental developments in twentieth century science, such as the move from old, classical assumptions of linear causation to non-linear complexity from reductionism to a holistic systems approach and from mental mechanisms to acknowledging the mysteries of unconscious interaction. Taking up the radical vision originally proposed by Carl Jung and later fostered by eminent psychotherapists such as Winnicott and Bion, the author shows how psychotherapy can be reframed to admit the existence of a psychological fourth dimension. Nathan Field reappraises ideas of health and pathology, psychoanalysis and healing, sex and spirituality in light of a dramatic shift in the way we understand ourselves. How this shift alters the shape of psychotherapy in the twenty-first century is the challenge the practitioners, teachers and trainees must all address.
Zusammenfassung
The "e;epigenetic puzzle"e; which is schizophrenia, forms the focus of this Monograph, But The Authors Do Not Sit Comfortably With The Notion That this is an entity. Rather, they approach the non-affective psychoses on a broad epidemiological base, ascertaining cases of so-called "e;functional"e; psychoses over a quarter of a century. They examine admission policies, showing that patients are admitted to hospital on the grounds of their particular presentation, rather than their diagnosis. They explore Differences Between Males And Females With Psychotic Disorders, And Show that gender is a more powerful influence than diagnosis. They investigate trends over time, and find that demography is the major influence. Looking at criminality, they show that the factors predicting criminal Behaviour In Individuals With Psychotic Illness Are Much The Same In those without psychotic illness. And they trace the longitudinal course of illness, putting paid to the schizophrenia/manic depression dichotomy.; This monograph is an overview of the ideas and many of the findings generated by a highly productive group of researchers. It has a good chance to become one of the standard references in several of the key aspects of schizophrenia.
Inhalt
Acknowledgements, 1 Interpreting and relating, 2 Breakdown and breakthrough, 3 Healing and exorcism, 4 Mechanisms and mysteries, 5 New science and old philosophies, 6 New science and psychotherapy, 7 The spectrum of consciousness, 8 The fourth dimension, 9 The spectrum of treatment, 10 The area of convergence, 11 Dubious practices, 12 Danger in the fourth dimension, 13 Psychotherapy and subversion, 14 What is psychopathology?, 15 Psychotherapy reframed, References, Index