This innovative book provides a framework for using recent advances in personality science to inform and enrich psychotherapy. The author demonstrates how multidimensional assessment within the context of a strong therapeutic alliance can serve as a guide to treating clients as multifaceted individuals, rather than simply treating symptoms or diagnoses. Key concepts and procedures of personality assessment are clearly explained, as are ways to use the resulting data effectively in treatment planning and intervention with individuals or couples. The concluding chapter features an extended case example illustrating the author's approach.
--- from the publisher Contents
1. Introduction
2. Domain 1--Traits
3. Domain 2--Characteristic Adaptations: Personal Strivings and Defenses
4. Domain 3--Narrative Identity: Life Stories and Self-Defining Memories
5. Relational Dynamics
6. Foundations and Principles of a Person-Based Psychology and Psychotherapy
7. Case Study of a Person-Based Therapy
Appendix A. Contact Information for Obtaining Instruments Referred to in This Volume
Appendix B. The Historical Roots of a Person-Based Psychology Reviews "Once upon a time, psychologists dreamed they could be healers and scientists at the same time, but the dream was lost. In this boldly integrative and beautifully written book, Jefferson Singer shows how a person-based psychology can restore the dream and bring out the best of what modern personality research and enlightened clinical practice have to offer. This landmark volume offers a new vision for 21st-century psychology--a vision which, like the book itself, is rigorous, empathic, and deeply committed to exploring the mysteries of a person's life."-Dan P. McAdams, PhD, Department of Psychology and Foley Center for the Study of Lives, Northwestern University
"This elegantly written volume brings psychology back to its rightful home: the study and appreciation of the whole person. It creatively integrates objective and interpretive methods and laboratory and clinical findings to fashion a full-blooded psychology of the individual. Of equal significance, the author expertly applies this knowledge to the understanding and treatment of individuals and couples in psychotherapy. Students and practitioners, whether novice or experienced, will be greatly rewarded by reading this compelling book."-Stanley B. Messer, PhD, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey About the Author
Jefferson A. Singer, PhD, is a professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, and is a clinical psychologist with a private practice in Waterford, Connecticut. He has written two previous books, The Remembered Self: Emotion and Memory in Personality (with Peter Salovey) and Message in a Bottle: Stories of Men and Addiction, as well as numerous articles, chapters, and reviews on clinical psychology and personality and memory. Dr. Singer is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, past associate editor of the Journal of Personality, and is the 2005 recipient of the Theodore R. Sarbin Award for Theoretical Contributions to Psychology, presented by Division 24 (Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology) of the American Psychological Association.
|
