Customer Reviews

Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psychodynamics (Hodder Arnold Publication)

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Dr. Malan's work is an excellent description of how to approach a client from a psychodynamic perspective. Building from some basic dynamic patterns (Oedipal etc) Malan shows how common presenting issues are driven by unconscious processes.

Malan relies on a model which incorporates the triangles of person and conflict (reminicent of Menninger's work in the 50's). This model provides a visual and well as conceptual tool for understanding the moment-by-moment events in the psychotherapy session. I have found this model to be most useful and have also published accounts of psychotherapy using this text as the key resource.

Throughout the text, Malan uses case examples to illustrate theory. While some readers might find the book heavy going at times, the determined reader will be rewarded with a wealth of clinical wisdom.

Malan offers the reader a window into the unconscious. He is both practical (as an analyst with an eclectic range of paradigms) and as an author who offers powerful stories that help the reader to make sense of the complexity of his psychotherapeutic practice. The stories offer insights into the worlds of his (often temporarily unhealthy) patients, but for me, the useful theorising emerges from his symbolism - the development of the two triangles. The Triangle of Conflict, with its three vertices representing Defence, Anxiety and Hidden Feelings: and the Triangle of Person, where the vertices represent Other 'O'(recent past), Transference, 'T' (here-and-now) and Parent 'P' (distant past). With this framework, Malan puts his patients (and fortunately for us - his readers) in touch with appropriate questions to ask of their unconscious.

This is one of the main texts for my graduate psychotherapy class and it is the best book on psychodynamics that I have ever read. I love this text and I carry it around with me to re-read portions at my leisure. It is very comprehensive and demonstrates concepts through case studies. Very informative and a joy to read. I could not put it down!