Książki

I have often stated to students that I felt that one of the most important characteristics of a psychotherapist is the ability to tolerate ambiguity. As Allen so aptly points out in this creative and valuable book, my observa tion contains an implicit assumption that requires a clear statement in order for it to be understood. Before ambiguity can be tolerated, it must be recognized. The psychotherapist who accepts the presentations of the pa tient at face value is never faced with the difficult problem of tolerating the ambiguity that is so intrinsic to the circumstances that bring many people to treatment. In this volume, Allen has undertaken the task of helping the reader to recognize ambiguity in all of its manifestations, to understand it better, and, having understood it, to help the patient to grow beyond it. Ambiguity, in Allen's view, arises from a dialectical conflict, whether it is between the self and the system, intrapsychic and wholly within the self, or social, when the individual is tom between competing reference groups. Psychotherapy is a process by which the dialectic can be brought to consciousness so that a synthesis can be achieved. The dialectic that engages the individual, and often is played out between the individual and the system, parallels the struggle between attachment and individuation.

Deciphering Motivation in Psychotherapy

I: The Dialectics of Motivation.- One Language and Intention.- The Cooperative Principle.- Assessment of the Intentions of Others.- Behavioral Cues.- The Search for Behavioral Cues.- Two Mixed Motivation and Language.- The Dialectical Perspective.- The Dialectics of Motivation.- The Dialectics of Language.- Universal Grammar.- Three Ambiguity.- Types of Ambiguity.- Motivational Ambiguity.- The Semantics of Intrapsychic Conflict.- Responses to Ambiguity.- The Semantics of the Game without End.- Four Selfishness and Altruism.- The Paradox of American Individualism.- Altruism Masquerading as Selfishness.- Mortification.- Five Distancing.- The Evolution of Social Roles.- Parent-Child Distancing.- Role Function Support.- II: Deciphering Motivation in Therapy.- Six Deciphering Motivation in Psychotherapy.- Recognizing Hidden Double Meanings.- Verifying the Hypothesis.- Presentation of the Hypothesis.- Seven Statements as Behavioral Cues: Case Examples.- Eight The Language of Self-Suppression: Case Examples.- Altruism Masked as Selfishness.- The Language of Mortification.- Nine The Language of Role Function Ambivalence: Case Examples.- Ambivalence: Self-Expectations.- Ambivalence: Expectations of Others.- The Language of Distancing.- Conclusion.- References.- Index to Cases and Statements.