Wisdom in the Practice of Psychotherapy (First Printing)

This book provides clinical guidance for psychotherapists at all levels in the form of brief clinical "wisdoms." The author explains and amplifies particular moments and interactions in the therapy process, from setting the stage for patient receptivity and forming a therapeutic alliance, to curative agents and their deceptions. The clinical axioms in this book are selected from analyses of therapist and patient interactions and underscore the fact that psychotherapy is first and foremost a communication process, a systematic use of the human relationship. The author maintains that mutual therapeutic communication is the pivot of treatment that supersedes all schools and specific techniques.
The volume merges two major trends of psychotherapy practice today: elucidating specific techniques for clinical use as well as presenting an orientation of rapprochement in both theory and strategy. The book distills several existing complex and highly elaborate views of the human psyche, its ills and its cures, and identifies basic principles of treatment that are relevant for real-life therapeutic endeavors.
While the work is grounded in the overriding theoretical concepts of various major psychologies - drive theory, ego psychology, object relations theory, and self psychology, in juxtaposition with language and communication theory and existential philosophy - its emphasis is on the synthesis of diverse schools. It offers a generic therapeutic philosophy and experiential wisdom that can engender growth in its practitioners and ultimately its patients.

T. Byram Karasu, M.D., a graduate of the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, is presently the Silverman Professor and University Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, and the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychotherapy. He is the author or editor of 20 books, including two novels, Of God and Madness and The Gotham Chronicles--The Culture of Sociopathy; a book of poetry, Rags of My Soul; the seminal work, Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders; and two best sellers, The Art of Serenity and The Spirit of Happiness. Dr. Karasu is a scholar, renowned clinician, teacher and lecturer, and the recipient of numerous awards. He lives in New York City.