Elizabeth L. Auchincloss
In Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in Clinical Practice, Fifth Edition, Gabbard has given us a book that is both perfect for beginners and interesting to those advanced in their work with patients. This is a tremendous accomplishment! The book is both sophisticated and user-friendly. It is a must-have for the library of every serious mental health professional, who will refer to it many, many times.
Arnold M. Cooper
Arnold M. Cooper, M.D., Professor Emeritus in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, New York, New York
This remarkable book is scholarly, lucid, and offers a compelling description of the central role of psychodynamic psychiatry in every aspect of modern psychiatric practice. Dr. Gabbard's prose and up-to-the-minute scholarship provides the intellectual foundation and clinical opportunity for the psychiatrist to focus on the individual needs of each of his patients with the depth of understanding that a knowledge of psychodynamics can provide. This volume covers the full range of psychiatric disorders and clinical situations, and provides every clinician with the opportunity to understand his patients more deeply and treat them more effectively. The book can be read as a whole or dipped into as a reference. Either way, it is invaluable.
John G. Gunderson
John G. Gunderson, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School/Director, Psychosocial and Personality Research, McLean Hospital,, Belmont, Massachusetts
Remarkably clear, readable, and scholarly, this generation's foremost teacher of psychodynamic theory and practice makes their role in psychiatry more recognizable, compelling, and up-to-date than ever. Gabbard again deploys his talents to create a unique resource for every clinician who works -or who wants to work - within this sector of mental health.
David A. Goldberg
Psychodynamic psychiatry takes the next step towards becoming an integrative modern clinical discipline in this revision of Dr. Gabbard's landmark text. Psychodynamic theory and applications to clinical practice are lucidly described within a biopsychosocial context that is informed by the most recent clinical evidence and links to evolving neuroscience. This book should be read and re-read by students, clinicians and educators both for its immense clinical applications and for its vision for the evolution of our field.
David Spiegel
David Spiegel, M.D., Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
Once again Dr. Gabbard has given us a text that is dynamic in two senses. He clearly presents the theory and practice of psychotherapy involving unconscious and conscious dynamic conflict, transference and countertransference. His writing is lucid, his thinking clear, his use of the literature scholarly. Dr. Gabbard provides us with a dynamic read about psychodynamics.
Robert Michels
Glen Gabbard's Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice has become a classic -- the basic formulation of what psychodynamics is and what it can contribute to modern psychiatry. It is a must for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and all psychiatrists who talk to patients.
The new fourth edition maintains and develops the virtues of the earlier ones. Contemporary psychoanalytic theory is pluralistic, and Gabbard is at home in ego psychology, modern Kleinian theory, self-psychology, object relations, and relational thinking. Moreover he is a genius at explicating the essentials of each, comparing their perspectives, and guiding the clinician in feeling comfortable in drawing upon each in clinical work.
Gabbard also provides summaries of the contributions of developmental and neurobiologic research, emphasizing their relevance for the thinking and practice of the dynamic clinician. Residents often complain that there is little relationship between the science that they learn in seminars and the practice they are taught in clinics. This book addresses that question head on, and builds the bridges so important for the future of the field.
The book is organized by the major DSM-IV clinical entities but does not hesitate to expand and develop its descriptions. It not only reviews the psychodynamic theory and neurobiologic models for each, but also summarizes the available research on treatment efficacy. Gabbard's psychodynamic clinician is comfortable with the full range of patients, treated in outpatient, inpatient and day hospital settings, with individual, family and group methods, and with medication as well as psychotherapy.
There may be no single book that can itself teach one to be an effective psychodynamic clinician, but this is clearly the best.