Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution

Why some problems persist while others are resolved.

This classic book, available in paperback for the very first time, explores why some people can successfully change their lives and others cannot. Here famed psychologist Paul Watzlawick presents what is still often perceived as a radical idea: that the solutions to our problems are inherently embedded in the problems themselves.

Tackling the age-old questions surrounding persistence and change, the book asks why problems arise and are perpetuated in some instances but easily resolved in others. Incorporating ideas about human communication, marital and family therapy, the therapeutic effects of paradoxes and of action-oriented techniques of problem resolution, Change draws much from the field of psychotherapy.

Paul Watzlawick was an associate at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, and clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University Medical Center. An internationally known psychologist, Watzlawick died in 2007.

John H. Weakland died in 1995.

Richard Fisch is a psychiatrist with a private practice in Palo Alto, California.

Bill O’Hanlon, is a founder of Possibility and Inclusive Therapies and is the author or coauthor of more than thirty books, including Out of the Blue, Becoming A Published Therapist, and Quick Steps to Resolving Trauma. He is a Diplomate, Board Member, Fellow and Master Therapist in the American Psychotherapy Association and was awarded the "Outstanding Mental Health Educator of the Year" in 2001 by the New England Educational Institute. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit his website for more information: BillOHanlon.com.