Complexity of the Self: A Developmental Approach to Psychopathology and Therapy (The Guilford Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology Series) - Hardcover

Guidano, Vittorio F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0898620120 ISBN 13: 9780898620122

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 1987

Synopsis

In this profound work, Vittorio Guidano expands upon his earlier seminal contributions on the application of cognitive and developmental principles to individuals struggling with various forms of psychopathology. Here, he fully develops the idea that individuals' experiences, both positive and negative, are powerfully influenced by their personal psychological organizations. Guidano illustrates how early developmental experiences and ongoing psychological processes may collude to perpetuate dysfunctional patterns and personal distress. The book contends that the deep structure or core organizing processes that constrain human psychological experience may be at the heart of successful intervention as well as the problems of resistance, relapse, and refractory behaviors. Guidano offers exciting ideas about how to conceptualize and facilitate change in the self system. The volume draws together many disparate themes from object relations theory, ego psychology, attachment theory, constructivist models of human cognition, and lifespan developmental psychology.
 

About this title

About the Author

Vittorio F. Guidano, MD, founded the Rome Center for Cognitive Therapy, where he serves as  Staff Psychiatrist, and is a founding member of the Italian Association for Cognitive Behavioral Therapies. From 1976 to 1986 he was Assistant Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychopathology at the School of Medicine of the University of Rome.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PART I. THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES.
1. Introductory Notes on Self-Organized Complexity and a Systems Approach: Evolutionary Epistemology; Hierarchical Organization and Coalitional Control; Dynamic Equilibrium and Dialectical Growth; Temporal Becoming and the Historical Dimension.
2. A Motor-Evolutionary Perspective on Human Knowledge: Motor Theories of the Mind; Tacit and Explicit Levels of Knowing; Emotions and the Primacy of Personal Meaning;
3. On Selfhood Processes, Attachment, and Identity: Selfhood as a Dialectical, Interactive Process; Attachment Processes and Self-Identity. PART II. DEVELOPMENTAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS.
4. Development: Introductory Remarks; Infancy and Preschool Years; Self-Recognition; Parent-Child Relationship; The Emergence of Emotions and Consciousness; Selfhood Processes in Preschool Years; Childhood; Parent-Child Relations; The Emergence of Stable Boundaries of the Self; Selfhood Processes in Childhood; Adolescence and Youth; Parent-Child Relationship; The Reorganization of Self-Boundaries; Selfhood Processes in Adolescence and Youth.
5. Organization: A Two-Level Model of Knowledge Processes; The Tacit Organizing Level; The Explicit Structural Level; Attitudes Toward Oneself and Reality; The Notion of Personal Cognitive Organization; Organizational Closure and Structural Openness; Change and Systemic Coherence.
PART III. TOWARD A SYSTEMS/PROCESS-ORIENTED PSYCHOPATHOLOGY.
6. Patterns and Processes: The Influence of Parenting Behavior on Dysfunctional Patterns of Attachment; Adolescence Reorganization and the Integration Problem; Personal Cognitive Organizations and Clinical Patterns; The Dynamics of Cognitive Dysfunction.
7. The Depressive Cognitive Organization: Dysfunctional Patterns of Attachment; Identity Development; Organizational Aspects; Systemic Coherence; The Dynamics of Cognitive Dysfunction.
8. The Agoraphobic Cognitive Organization: Dysfunctional Patterns of Attachment; Identity Development; Organizational Aspects; Systemic Coherence; The Dynamics of Cognitive Dysfunction.
9. The Eating Disorders Cognitive Organization: Invariant Aspects of Dysfunctional Patterns of Attachment; Identity Development; Organizational Aspects; Systemic Coherence; The Dynamics of Cognitive Dysfunction.
10. The Obsessive Cognitive Organization: Invariant Aspects of Dysfunctional Patterns of Attachment; Identity Development; Organizational Aspects; Systemic Coherence; The Dynamics of Cognitive Dysfunction.
11. Principles of Lifespan Developmental Psychopathology: Development as a Lifelong, Directional Process; Bifurcation Points in Lifespan Dynamic Equilibrium; The Notion of Life Theme.
12. Concluding Remarks. Appendix: Some Strategic Principles for Cognitive Therapy. References.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0898620120
• ISBN 13: 9780898620122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248