The Talking Cure [Hardcover]

Susan Vaughan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 1997

A psychoanalyst explores the ways in which the process and mechanisms of therapy shape and alter the brain, the way psychotherapy works, and its effects on human interaction with the world around.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The fact that Woody Allen has spent a lifetime in psychotherapy has convinced many people who need help that talking it out with a therapist is pointless when drugs can do the same job, only quicker. But The Talking Cure makes a strong argument in favor of psychoanalytically based psychotherapy. Susan Vaughan, a veteran researcher, asserts that talking itself can change neural pathways in the brain (she says that instead of Listening to Prozac we should be Talking to Neurons), leading to permanent, positive change, sometimes in conjunction with drugs, sometimes without.

From Booklist

Psychoanalyst Vaughan believes patients should know how psychotherapy works. Her basic theme is that psychotherapy can change the connections of the brain's neurons. She says the story of each individual's life is unique and the way in which people tell their story is of vital importance to their understanding of self and to the treatment developed by the therapist. Caring and sensitive, Vaughan uses several case histories to demonstrate her methods, which include changing her thinking and approach as the patient's personality and relationships with self and others become more apparent through the telling of stories. Long-term therapy is especially valuable, she says, because it fosters self-analysis and because it gives a patient the time needed for practicing newly learned skills and enough opportunities to express strong emotions in safe surroundings. Vaughan's book is thought-provoking and informative, despite the meagerness of the scientific underpinnings implied by its subtitle. William Beatty

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1St Edition edition (April 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399142290
• ISBN-13: 978-0399142291
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,263,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Showed me what therapy was all about!, October 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Talking Cure (Hardcover)

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing review of why psychotherapy works, November 5, 2001

By 

Katherine Masis (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Talking Cure (Paperback)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise book on the relationship of psychology and the brain, March 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Talking Cure (Paperback)

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.