Customer Reviews

The Talking Cure

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book was recommended by my therapist who said it was the best book he had ever read on the subject of how psychotherapy works and what the process was like. I was delighted to find that it was easy to read in a short amount of time and yet that I learned alot. The stories of patients are enjoyable and done with flair and the explanations of the science are broken up into manageable chunks that are possible to understand even for someone like me who has only a college level neuroscience background. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about this type of therapy.

Susan Vaugh has written a wonderful overview of the inner workings of psychotherapy. Thanks to neural plasticity, psychotherapy can, and, if successful, does change neural pathways and brain structure. Support for this may be found in the way dreams change in the course of successful psychotherapy. During REM sleep, the reticular formation is activated and, as neurons from that area are fired, habitual story themes are creanked out that reflect a client's Core Conflict (Luborsky). As successful psychotherapy progresses, dreams change; i.e., the Core Conflict changes, which in turn indicates that the neurons fired from the reticular formation are being fired in a different way, with different pathways and patterns.

A clear and concise book - somewhere between self-help and true psychology and psychobiology - but presenting intriguing and convincing arguments concerning the relationship between psychotherapy and the brain. One of the best books as to how and why psychodynamic therapy works - despite attacks from different directions over the century. It is highly recommended for anyone in therapy or considering a course of treatment, especially those interested in reconciling the "talking cure" and some of the discoveries of the last 20 years about the brain.

This review is an update of my previous one from 2001. From both a psychodynamic and a neurological perspective, Vaughn shows us the inner workings of psychotherapy. Thanks to neural plasticity, successful psychotherapy can modify neural pathways and brain structure. Support for this can be found in the way dreams change in the course of successful psychotherapy. During REM sleep, the reticular formation is activated and, as neurons from that area are fired, habitual story themes are cranked out that reflect a client's Core Conflict (as described by Luborsky). As successful psychotherapy progresses, dreams change; i.e., the Core Conflict changes, which in turn indicates that the neurons fired from the reticular formation are being fired in a new, different way, with fresh pathways and patterns. Yes, good psychotherapy does work, and it does change the brain.

This fascinating book explains how psychotherapy literally changes the way that the neurons in the brain are interconnected to change the way you look at relationships in a permanent way. Vaughan recognizes that her model is merely a framework for beginning to think about the brain effects of psychotherapy, but it is a novel and wonderful framework. Along the way she tells warm, witty and wonderful stories from her patients' psychotherapy sessions as well as her own. The best book I've ever read on the subject!

Susan makes her case very well in this intriguing book. Frankly it was exactly what I expected and was looking for ... a technical discussion of the process of change at a physiological and emotional level.

Even if you dont agree with her ideas it is hard to say she doen't present well.

Hi susan,
I did not get my ordered book. Will you send it me soon because I really want to read it for my class. Thank you very much.

Hatsue

As a counselor-in-training who has a very comprehensive background in science I can find little to appreciate about this book. Vaughan is a psychoanalyst who has a penchant for relating her therapy to science. The difficulty is, for me, neither her therapy nor explanations comes across very well.

The author talks about what her patients are experiencing, what is going on in the the brain, and how it is related to therapy. She often draws subjective inferences, which may be interesting speculation but are definitely not science. What is actually science is nothing particularly groundbreaking and is integrated in a sloppy transition between the different aspects of brain functioning and their relation to therapy.

Also, it is difficult to take a lot of the research seriously when it is not referenced in the book! A study done by so and so suggest that, this computer model was developed by that cognitive scientist and colleagues, etc. Why thank you for elucidating me, Vaughan, but would you care to add references throughout the chapter so I know *where* you found your information? What was the name of the article, what year was it published, was it published in a peer review journal, does the research suggest X based on your opinion or the researchers opinion? I really cant say.....

Also, the book has a relatively heavy emphasis on psychoanalysis and dream work. Nothing new and groundbreaking for those who practice with such but also nothing interesting for people with different experience.

So we have a book that:
~Most of the general population wont understand
~Doesn't contain a lot of useful science
~Is particularly interesting
~Doesn't provide groundwork in counseling or neurobiology
~Has inadequate references

but....

Has speculations by a MD who is also a therapist.

When it comes down to it, others may have an opinion that differers from mine, but I wasn't personally impressed with this book in any manner whatsoever.

I was very excited when I recently found this book. Having studied cognitive processes and most of the recent professional journal articles on memory recovery, I was very surprised that the author's theories - written in 1997 - are now being confirmed left and right! Better yet, she explains the concepts in simple ways that nearly anyone can understand. She's right; there is no Wizard of Oz hiding behind the curtain during therapy sessions. Clients need to be taught how their cognitive and memory processes work. Armed with that knowledge - as provided in Dr. Vaughan's book - those clients may experience the new, delicious, empowering sensation that they - not their therapists - are in control of their own minds and lives.

This book starts out rationally enough, but soon deteriorates into some annoying quasi-scientific posturing. Psychoanalysis is compelling and convincing without the 'data' - much of it questionable - Vaughan cites. The wonder, the mystery, and the beauty of her topic are subsumed by her gimmicky neurobiological slant. Many of her theories are unprovable. The specious science is a little scary - she's a psychiatrist, and ought to know better.