Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process

Nancy McWilliams

Guilford Press, Jul 14, 2011 - Psychology - 426 pages

This acclaimed clinical guide and widely adopted text has filled a key need in the field since its original publication. Nancy McWilliams makes psychoanalytic personality theory and its implications for practice accessible to practitioners of all levels of experience. She explains major character types and demonstrates specific ways that understanding the patient's individual personality structure can influence the therapist's focus and style of intervention. Guidelines are provided for developing a systematic yet flexible diagnostic formulation and using it to inform treatment. Highly readable, the book features a wealth of illustrative clinical examples.

? New to This Edition *Reflects the ongoing development of the author's approach over nearly two decades. *Incorporates important advances in attachment theory, neuroscience, and the study of trauma. *Coverage of the contemporary relational movement in psychoanalysis.
Winner--Canadian Psychological Association's Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Part IConceptual Issues: 5
• Chapter 1Why Diagnose?: 7
• Chapter 2Psychoanalytic Character Diagnosis: 21
• Chapter 3Developmental Levels of Personality Organization: 43
• Chapter 4Implications of Developmental Levels of Organization: 70
• Chapter 5Primary Defensive Processes: 100
• Chapter 6Secondary Defensive Processes: 126
• Part IITypes of Character Organization: 151
• Chapter 7Psychopathic Antisocial Personalities: 157
• Chapter 8Narcissistic Personalities: 176
• Chapter 9Schizoid Personalities: 196
• Chapter 10Paranoid Personalities: 214
• Chapter 11Depressive and Manic Personalities: 235
• Chapter 12Masochistic SelfDefeating Personalities: 267
• Chapter 13Obsessive and Compulsive Personalities: 289
• Chapter 14Hysterical Histrionic Personalities: 311
• Chapter 15Dissociative Psychologies: 332
• AppendixSuggested Diagnostic Interview Format: 359
• References: 363
• Author Index: 407
• Subject Index: 414

About the author

Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP, teaches in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and has a private practice in Flemington, New Jersey. She is a former president of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association and is on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology. Dr. McWilliams?s books have been translated into 14 languages, and she has lectured widely both nationally and internationally. She is a recipient of honors including the Rosalee Weiss Award for contributions to practice from the Division of Independent Practitioners of the American Psychological Association; Honorary Membership in the American Psychoanalytic Association; and the Robert S. Wallerstein Visiting Scholar Lectureship in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at the University of California, San Francisco. A graduate of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, Dr. McWilliams is also affiliated with the Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy of New Jersey and the National Training Program of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York City.

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Bibliographic information

• Title: Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process
• Author: Nancy McWilliams
• Edition: revised
• Publisher: Guilford Press, 2011
• ISBN: 1609184947, 9781609184940
• Length: 426 pages
• Subjects: Medical / Psychiatry / General; Psychology / Movements / Psychoanalysis; Social Science / Social Work