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Equal to the Madness: Countertransference Intensive Psychotherapy for Psychosis is among the first books of its kind to offer a semistructured psychoanalytic treatment for schizophrenia and psychotic disorders. Grounded in contemporary psychoanalytic theory, with a strong focus on Wilfred Bion's seminal contributions to the treatment of psychotic states, this book presents a model for working with psychotic patients that emphasizes the key role of countertransference in understanding the patient and producing change. It addresses all the most important areas of treatment in one volume, presenting clinicians with comprehensive theory and technique for providing effective and thoughtful care to psychotic patients.
Equal to the Madness was researched using an intuitive process of "distillation and matching," a means of selecting and identifying the common elements in treatment from diverse psychoanalytic literature spanning more than one hundred years. It effectively condenses, synthesizes, and streamlines much of psychoanalytic thinking on psychosis into an easy-to-access treatment compendium. The result is an explicit, well-articulated approach to psychotherapy that is sufficiently organized to be useful as a treatment manual, giving clinicians a reliable framework for intervening with psychotic patients.
Equal to the Madness is didactic and applied in addition to theoretical. It offers basic instruction to those who are just learning about the treatment of psychosis for the first time but is far-reaching enough to be helpful to more seasoned professionals. It provides clinicians with information related to assessment, intervention, and therapeutic strategies tailored specifically for psychotic patients. Rich case materials illustrating important concepts are included to reinforce learning.
Equal to the Madness is a foundational resource for mental health care providers that delivers an instrumental learning experience.
List of contents
List of Figures, Tables, and Textboxes
Introduction
Part I: Groundwork
Chapter 1: Narrativizing the Forgotten Catastrophe: A Subjective Etiology of Schizophrenia
Chapter 2: Bion's Conception of Schizophrenia and Psychosis
Part II: Countertransference Intensive Psychotherapy for Psychosis (CIP-P)
Chapter 3: Psychoanalytic Vertices for Diagnosing Psychosis and Schizophrenia
Chapter 4: Countertransference Intensive Psychotherapy for Psychosis, Part I: Principles, Techniques, and Modifications
Chapter 5: Countertransference Intensive Psychotherapy for Psychosis, Part II: Initiating the Treatment
Chapter 6: Driven Crazy: The Varieties of Psychotic Countertransference
Part III: Psychotic Symptomatology: Psychodynamics and Clinical Approach
Chapter 7: The Relief of Having a Singly Story, Part I: Delusion Formation
Chapter 8: The Relief of Having a Singly Story, Part II: Common Delusional Themes and Principles of Treatment
Chapter 9: Sensory Blindness: Treatment of Hallucinatory Experience
Chapter 10: Afterthought Disorders, Part I: Syntax, Morphology, and Pragmatics of the Unconscious
Chapter 11: Afterthought Disorders, Part II: Linguistic Typology and Language Interventions
Chapter 12: Ego Castration: Treating Cognitive Deficits in Schizophrenia with Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Chapter 13: A Life of Quiet Desperation: Catatonia as Hypertrophy of the False Self
Chapter 14: Psychic Birth Defects as Foundation for Soma-Psychotic States
Chapter 15: Attacking the Link: Genital Mutilation and Psychotic Anti-Sexuality
Chapter 16: Dead Objects and Subject Relationships: The Origins of Disturbed Attention
Chapter 17: A Retreat from Madness: Autistic Phenomenology in the Schizophrenia Spectrum
Part IV: Working Through
Chapter 18: Major Conflicts, Tensions, and Subclinical Syndromes in Schizophrenia
Chapter 19: Slouching Toward Zero: Working with Proto-Affect and Emotional Deadness
Chapter 20: Stepping into a Dream: Working with Transference Psychosis
Chapter 21: Neophobia as Operative Influence in Forms of Psychotic Resistance
Chapter 22: Consummate Lies: Psychotic Defensive Conglomerations
Chapter 23: Regression as Anti-Growth in Schizophrenia
Chapter 24: Equal to the Madness: Course of Treatment and Working Through
References
Index
About the Author
About the author
Zachary Wheeler, PsyD is a clinical psychologist based in Los Angeles, California. Through his work at residential facilities and his private practice, Dr. Wheeler has treated numerous patients presenting with severe mental health disorders. His general therapeutic orientation is informed by contemporary psychoanalytic theory, particularly the work of Wilfred Bion. His primary interests are in the research, development, and teaching of psychotherapy for schizophrenia spectrum disorders as well as the psychotherapy of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
