Psychoanalytic Case Formulation
How to build a working psychodynamic understanding of a patient beyond diagnosis.
She has produced a book that is intelligently psychoanalytic without being restricted to any single vision of psychoanalysis.
McWilliams sets out how a clinician moves from a descriptive diagnosis to a working psychodynamic understanding of the person in the room. She argues that experienced therapists rely far more on inferential and intuitive judgement than on manual categories, and she makes that private reasoning teachable by breaking it into components a practitioner can assess in sequence.
The chapters take up temperament, developmental level, defensive organisation, characteristic affects, identifications, relational patterns, self-esteem regulation, and the pathogenic beliefs a patient carries. For each, McWilliams shows what to notice, what it implies for how the work might proceed, and where the formulation should stay provisional and open to revision.
The book treats formulation as ongoing rather than fixed at intake, and it draws on several analytic traditions without committing to one. It gives the reader a structured way to think about a new patient before a treatment plan hardens.
About the author
Nancy McWilliams
Nancy McWilliams is an American psychoanalytic psychologist. She is Visiting Professor Emerita at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, where she teaches, and she maintains a private practice in New Jersey. Working within the psychoanalytic and psychodynamic tradition, she is known for accessible, integrative writing on psychoanalytic diagnosis, personality structure and character, and clinical technique. Her books, published by Guilford Press, include Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Psychoanalytic Case Formulation, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and Psychoanalytic Supervision.
Details
- 1999
- Guilford Press
- Guilford Press
- 240
- 9781572304628