Personality Styles and Brief Psychotherapy

Written for therapists working with people in distress, this book describes the links between crisis and personality style, and offers a plan for approaching cases with these connections in mind. The authors discuss ways to help patients learn new coping strategies, modify enduring attitudes, and improve their relational patterns. The chapters outline the history of brief dynamic psychotherapy, describe an approach focused on current stressors, apply configurational analysis to case formulation and review, and detail five personality types.

The advancement of psychotherapy as a scientific discipline and clinical art requires the kinds of incisive analyses undertaken by Dr. Mardi Horowitz and his collaborators. Their work is thought-provoking and exemplifies the directions in which the field must move., Dr. Horowitz and his colleagues have made a significant addition to the literature on brief psychotherapy. The initial chapter reviewing historical developments is not only an excellent summary of current psychotherapeutic techniques, but it provides a fitting background to the authors' own unique concerns with tailoring brief therapy to the individual patient's personality configuration. This is a book from which all psychotherapists will profit, whether they are budding beginners or in the full flower of a successful career.

Mardi Jon Horowitz, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He has directed a series of programs including the Psychotherapy Evaluation and Study Center, Center for the Study of Neuroses, and Center on Stress and Personality. Dr. Horowitz has published many books, including States of Mind: Configurational Analysis of Individual Personality, Personality Styles and Brief Psychotherapy, and Nuances of Technique in Dynamic Psychotherapy. He is the recipient of the Pioneer Award of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies for his achievements in developing the diagnoses of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and disorders of complicated grief.