Transforming Aggression
Psychotherapy with the Difficult-to-Treat Patient
By (author) Frank M. Lachmann
Publication date:
01 April 2001Length of book:
264 pagesPublisher
Jason Aronson, Inc.ISBN-13: 9780765702937
Resources of empathy, humor, and creativity are needed by both the therapist and the patient to transform chronic, eruptive expressions of anger and transcend the tendency to violence. The task of therapy is to develop these resources. Dr. Frank M. Lachmann, eminent clinician, teacher, and researcher, offers help to clinicians working with difficult-to-treat patients. Creative, encouraging, and optimistic, this book offers therapists a refreshing perspective and invaluable clinical help.
This is a comprehensive and spirited overview of the clinical application of Kohut's self psychology to the therapeutic issues surrounding assertion, reactive aggression, and what Dr. Lachmann dubs eruptive aggression. Countering the common charge that self psychology does not (or does not know how to) deal with the varying expressions of aggression in treatment and in life. Lachmann carefully explicates the distinctions between the self psychological and other (relational, ego psychological, and Kleinian) approaches to these issues. This book is valuable reading for all of us concerned with the manifestations of aggression and hostility in this world, and what we, as concerned professionals, can do to ameliorate their hurtful effects.