Customer Reviews

Psychoanalytic Case Formulation

5 star:		(8)
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3 star:		(1)
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Nancy Mc Williams is imminently readable. She has the gift of de-mystifying difficult concepts; or, put another way, she does not apparently have ego-needs that compel her to make the concepts of psychotherapy, or the field itself, obtuse. She also has quite an ability to cut-to-the-chase. Consider, for example, her description of "insight": "Part of the emphasis on understanding is that the two of them [patient and therapist] need something to talk about while the nonspecific relational factors are doing their quiet healing." Her personality shows through in her writing, so you will learn at two levels -- what she is telling you explicity,which is invaluable, and what she is telling you implicitly -- what it is about her that makes her so effective -- and believe me, you would want her to be your therapist, supervisor, whatever. As an aside, she seems to have a particular interest in, and gift for working with, addicts and sociopaths. Read the book, make charts, keep it at hand. It's a good read.

While I agree with another reviewer that "The book could be much more valuable ... had there been a greater focus on relating findings more clearly and thoroughly to the actual work of therapy," it wouldn't then be about "case formulation," would it? There is more wisdom in this book that in any other five books on psychology I've read recently, and I read a lot. It's full of seemingly obvious insights I've never heard anyone say before. Simplicity and clarity are misleadingly difficult to pull off and are the sign of someone with real understanding. You may not be able to have Nancy McWilliams supervise your work but you can buy this book. She's not infallible; I don't agree with everything she says, but I also don't think you can go wrong by spending a few evenings with her.

Few books on *psychoanalytic* therapy offer such an excellent combination of theory and *application*. Want to know what to do in therapy once you recognize your patient's defenses, patterns, level of self-esteem, issues with affect, etc? Get this book. You do not know basic psychoanalytic tenets? The theory is there as well.

Some people think this book is only for beginners. I disagree. It seems simple because McWilliams is a gifted writer and teacher, and has a knack to explain the most difficult concepts with everyday language that a 6 year old would understand. If you want an easy read with a lot of substance, read McWilliams. If you want a painful read with little substance, read Lacan (haha.) I am a beginner therapist, and this book has helped me immensely. The professor that recommended it has been practising for 35 years and *still* finds it useful. (Note: he is a renowned clinician and scholar... not just anybody)

Every sentence counts. There is no superfluous material here. You get your every penny's worth of information. The book is also a page-turner--since when is a textbook supposed to be this enjoyable??? And McWilliams, who is obviously comfortable in her own skin, does not show the dogmatism that is typical in other writers. She is open to admit the usefulness of other approaches to therapy, and this very openness makes this text a useful resource for anyone interested in psychotherapy, even if they are coming from a different approach (cognitive behavioral, humanistic...).

Tonight as we handed in our "take home final exams" for a Psychoanalytic Theory and Therapy class we all agreed that this book (a required text) was a good read. The author shared her experiences as a therapist in such a practical way, and gave us a taste of how to approach psychotherapy from a psychoanalytic perspective. Due to limited time this semester, I skimmed through a couple of the chapters (don't tell the prof)and actually look forward, during Christmas break, to more carefully reading each chapter.

I think the most important use of this book and the others that Nancy Mcwilliams has written is the access they provide into the literature. The books she recommends and references (I've collected a few) are important for an understanding of modern psychoanalysis and (I think) human psychology. I would thoroughly recommend all of Nancy Mcwilliams' introductory text books on psychoanalytic psychotherapy for this reason. Also, Nancy Mcwilliams brings a postmodernist understanding (which seems ironically modern to me) to the study of psychoanalysis. I wouldn't know how to approach a complex tradition like psychoanalysis without such an approach. The personality theories handed down to us by previous generations frequently don't seem to fit together logically -- but they do seem to make sense phenomenologically -- they apply differently to differnt kinds of people. Psychoanaylsis is an important tradition and Nancy Mcwilliams demonstrates this in all of her books.

This is an outstanding clinical book. Nancy McWilliams has integrated several psychodynamic, object-relations, and developmental perspectives to help the clinician formulate a working diagnosis. In so doing, she offers to both beginning and advanced practitioners rich clinical material; upon reading it, I felt as if I were receiving a great gift! This is truly an excellent book. I will use it for students, for supervisees, and--sometimes in those five minutes between sessions--for me to savor myself!

A good reference book for those in the field. I recommend it for social workers, CASACS and grad students. Gives a comprehensive delineation of concepts across the the range of psychoanalytic schools of thought. One of my enduring favorites.

We are using Nancy McWilliams' book in our supervision each Friday, chapter by chapter and we are learning so much about this type of case formulation.

Psychoanalytic Case Formulation provides some insight on the manner by which the analytic practitioner assesses a patient. Assessment of defenses, affects, self-esteem, identifications, and relational patterns are just some of the topics covered. However, the sections on the "clinical implications" of findings in each area are brief and leave the reader wanting more. The book could be much more valuable (like its predecessor, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis) had there been a greater focus on relating findings more clearly and thoroughly to the actual work of therapy.

I bought this book thinking that the author would go through some cases, explaining how she does psychotherapy. Not exactly. This book is more of a survey of psychotherapy--basically telling you everything you pretty much already know about it. What's even more frustrating is that not only is it a waste of a book, it's a waste of money. Very frustrating. (I'm surprised too because everyone else gave it such high reviews....I'm not sure what they were smoking...)