Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psychodynamics

Rating:
Summary: A must-have for psychodynamic psychotherapists
Review: Dr. Malan's work is an excellent description of how to approach a client from a psychodynamic perspective. Building from some basic dynamic patterns (Oedipal etc) Malan shows how common presenting issues are driven by unconscious processes.

Malan relies on a model which incorporates the triangles of person and conflict (reminicent of Menninger's work in the 50's). This model provides a visual and well as conceptual tool for understanding the moment-by-moment events in the psychotherapy session. I have found this model to be most useful and have also published accounts of psychotherapy using this text as the key resource.

Throughout the text, Malan uses case examples to illustrate theory. While some readers might find the book heavy going at times, the determined reader will be rewarded with a wealth of clinical wisdom.

Rating:
Summary: The triangle of Conflict and the triangle of Person
Review: Malan offers the reader a window into the unconscious. He is both practical (as an analyst with an eclectic range of paradigms) and as an author who offers powerful stories that help the reader to make sense of the complexity of his psychotherapeutic practice. The stories offer insights into the worlds of his (often temporarily unhealthy) patients, but for me, the useful theorising emerges from his symbolism - the development of the two triangles. The Triangle of Conflict, with its three vertices representing Defence, Anxiety and Hidden Feelings: and the Triangle of Person, where the vertices represent Other 'O'(recent past), Transference, 'T' (here-and-now) and Parent 'P' (distant past). With this framework, Malan puts his patients (and fortunately for us - his readers) in touch with appropriate questions to ask of their unconscious.

Rating:
Summary: A Psychoanalytic Classic
Review: This is one of those rare books which (at least in its crucial first third) can be read with equal enlightenment by beginners or experienced clinicians - or interested laypeople. It is really the best modern primer of psychoanalysis. It mainly is based on Malan's version of modern conflict theory but it also gives great clinical explanations of the classic clinical presentation of the oedipus complex and earlier conflicts. Malan also presents Klein's work in a way that is readily comprehensible. This work is brilliant, accessible and a modern classic. It is the best single book to recommend to a beginning therapist. Teachers can also use it to organize their own courses.