The Art of the Psychotherapist: How to develop the skills that take psychotherapy beyond science ((1992)) [Paperback]

James F. T. Bugental (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 1992

Unlike the brief, specific-solution oriented therapies that many people demand today, the goal of depth therapy is life change. James Bugental has been practicing, teaching and writing about depth therapy for 40 years, and in this book, he shares his experiences as a psychotherapist.

Editorial Reviews

Review

James Bugental is not only a born therapist but also one who seeks indefatigably to learn more about the inner aspects of therapy. I think he is entirely right that the subjective area is the locale for improving the project of therapy. This book is a log of what he has learned. He shares here material which should be a stimulus to us all. (Rollo May, Ph.D. )

An extraordinarily useful book. Its task is to illuminate the inner, intimate aspects of therapy that most therapists find too subtle and complex to translate into language. Using an imaginative array of clinical examples and personal reflections, James Bugental, a master therapist and teacher, has succeeded marvelously in describing the art of psychotherapy. This book has vigor, courage, practicality and lucidity, but above all, it has wisdom. I know of no psychotherapist who would not be enriched by reading it. —Irvin D. Yalom, M.D., professor of psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine (Irvin D, Yalom, M.D. )

About the Author

James F. T. Bugental, Ph.D., has taught, conducted workshops, lectured, and consulted at over thirty universities and colleges and as many clinics and hospitals in the United States and Canada. He is a past president of the California State Psychological Association and author of The Search for Authenticity and other books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393309118
• ISBN-13: 978-0393309119
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A touchstone, August 14, 2001

By 

Andrew Barley - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of the Psychotherapist: How to develop the skills that take psychotherapy beyond science ((1992)) (Paperback)

As a therapist 'out there', after my training, I know that my learning is ongoing. Supervision, workshops, colleagues, patients and books are all sources of this learning. Some books are like old friends that I keep turning back to. The Art of the Psychotherapist by James Bugental is one of these.

Published in 1992, and writing it in his seventies, Dr.Bugental was drawing from a well of some half a century's worth of psychotherapy experience. He writes in the preface "writing this book is a culminating effort for me. I have been invested in trying to find ways of communicating what hundreds of patients have taught me about how we humans frame our being, how we express our questing, and how we - wittingly and unwittingly - defeat some of our best efforts". This giant task of processing, distillation and communication is a wish to "aid therapists, of different orientations, who intend doing depth, life-changing work to extend the range and power of their own perspectives". To understand the book better some words need to be said about 'depth psychotherapy'. 'Depth psychotherapy', as the author explains, values subjective experience as primary for examining and changing the way we have answered the 'big' questions of life, the existential questions of life. Questions such as how do I live? Who am I? What do I want from my life? On the objective-subjective psychotherapy range of working this is different from the also valuable objective endeavours of aiming and reducing symptoms. Time is another distinguishing factor. In an increasingly speedy world depth psychotherapy requires not a paddock of five sessions but open land - twice weekly meetings and years.

The challenge, which I believe the author has met, is laying down some routes into working with subjectivity while at the time preserving it. Like a rainforest rich with experience it wouldn't be quite the same from an air con coach with piped musak. As well as providing compasses, maps and vehicles, the author shares his experiences as a psychotherapist on a journey. His honesty is rewarding. He shares some frank lessons. For example, he reflects on the folly of a time when he was overly involved in taking care of his patients. The example is echoed in a recent interview when he said 'just yielding to the neediness of the client is not therapy'. The lure of engendering positive tranference.

Of all the chapters in the book I particularly enjoyed the one about 'Intentionality and Spiritedness'. For me it is the engine of the book and crucial to my understanding of depth therapy. I did wonder why though it came so late in the book though. The chapter describes the Jacob's ladder like ascent of impulses from the unconscious (our intentionality), up the steps of wish, want and will to their actualisation, or not, in the world. The death of impulses along the way makes me think of a witty remark said by a colleague to me about a certain place where we worked. 'This place' he said, 'is like a water butt in which the kittens of possibility are drowned'. So it is with our wishes.

In sum, the book is wise, imaginative and practical. Copious clinical examples of patient and therapist dialogue aid this communication. There's even an appendix with suggestions and exerices to develop the principles within the book. Someone, I forget where, described it as a 'gem of a book'. I agree and I hope that in an ever busy and competitive world The Art of the Psychotherapist is a spirit that will never be drowned.

9 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Funny, unintentionally, October 28, 2006

By 

William Krause (Great Neck, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of the Psychotherapist: How to develop the skills that take psychotherapy beyond science ((1992)) (Paperback)

No disparagement could do this book justice. I'll just quote it instead.
A passage picked at random:
"I write 'Humankind' with a capital 'H,' knowing I might as well write 'God' with a capital 'G' or 'The All.' Probably it is most accurate to use 'the Mystery in which we live.' I'm not sure what I mean by any of these terms. They seem alternative ways of pointing I really don't know where but someplace it seems important to try to point." Well, you just keep trying to point, then. I could not make this idiocy up. As much of the book as I could get through was at that level of claptrap. Use the Amazon "Search" feature and see for yourself.

Then there's the diagrams of the therapy process--which are only better by virtue of being so stupid they're funny. My favorite is the "interpersonal press" (a Bugental neologism for how directive the therapist is) represented as a piano keyboard, with four octaves and each note (OK, he skips the flats/sharps) a different approach. I guess therapy is only done in C Major or something.
Or maybe the one where he demonstrates paralleling with a diagram of parallel lines. Deep, man.

If even a single idea or approach had been made clear, I could do something besides snark at it. But nothing in this book has anything but poetic-sounding obfuscation, and you wonder if the author feels he has any understanding of his work.