Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution [Hardcover]

Paul Watzlawick (Author), John H. Weakland (Author), Richard Fisch (Author), Milton H. Erickson (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393011046 | ISBN-13: 978-0393011043 | Publication Date: April 17, 1974 | Edition: 1

Three prominent American therapists detail their theories and strategies for promoting human change and dealing with related psychological problems.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Watzlawick was an associate at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, and clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University Medical Center. An internationally known psychologist, Watzlawick died in 2007.

John H. Weakland died in 1995.

Richard Fisch is a psychiatrist with a private practice in Palo Alto, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (April 17, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393011046
• ISBN-13: 978-0393011043
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A practical extension of Bateson's ideas..., February 2, 2001

By 

Yuri Kuzyk (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution (Hardcover)

Watzlawick and friends give a quick introduction into their ideas of the philosophy behind change and it why we sometimes have problems with it. They have taken Bateson's early work where he drew an analogy between Russell's logical types and the problems of communication between people.

I found the authors' excerpts from various therapy sessions to be quite interesting and they obviously have a great deal of practical experience in this type of therapy. Their overviews of the context of some patients also helps strengthen their ideas regarding problems, change and the reason we often have difficulty changing situations even though we would really like to.

The only shortcoming is the lack of ideas for accomplishing change. They present some possible avenues but after all of Wilber's books I think we could stand a new edition of this book that would encompass other methods of therapy. The authors also could have done a bit more work contextualizing their results based on the fact that they were involved in "brief" therapy - that is, they had a definite time limit on sessions with patients so they had to come up with different ideas.

Highly recommended.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, September 3, 2001

By 

Susan G. Dunn "The EQ Coach" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution (Hardcover)

Knowing the difference between first-order change, and second-order change can change your life! See if you can figure this out: "It obviously makes as difference whether we consider ourselves as pawns in a game whose rules we call reality or as players of the game who know that rules are 'real' only to the extent that we have created or accepted them, and that we can change them." This is pretty much what this book is about. And this, "When a person enters therapy, he is fully entrenched in a dilemma: what he wishes to attain has become all the more important and urgent ... and because of this urgency it is all the more important that no risk of falure be involved in the eventual action." Complex stuff. I read it once, and now I'm back to read it again. It's hard to absorb it all the first time even though you know you're reading some pretty radical stuff that you probably ought to be acting upon!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've wondered why Logical Change fails. - Now I Know, June 17, 2000

By 

Edward G Wojdyla - See all my reviews

This review is from: Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution (Hardcover)

Over the last 15 years I have been involved with organizations undergoing major change. For all of those years I have tried to discover why change, that appears so essential to these companies, fails most of the time. I have searched for years for a logical answer.

I happend to notice the title of this book at a donated book sale at our local library.... I picked it and others up and proceeded to add it to the pile of books I would some day scan. On a long business flight I started to read this book.

I could not stop. As the authors laid out their ideas I covered the pages with notes.

Finaly a logical explanation of why change, even obviously necessary change, fails. Even more the begining of a method on how to make it work.