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Helping: Origins and Development of the Major Psychotherapies
390 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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August 31, 2024
A TEXTBOOK THAT SURVEYS A WIDE VARIETY OF THERAPIES
At the time this book was published in 1982, David R. Cole was Dean of the School of Applied Arts at the Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ontario. He begins the first chapter by saying, "This text is the outcome of five years of teaching a course on theories and methods of counselling and psychotherapy to social work and health services work students at the community college level... although the text has been developed in conjunction with a specific course, the material is organized and presented in such a way that it is applicable to a much wider audience." (Pg. 2-3)
He states, "The period following the [First World War] was significant. American psychiatry was being strongly influenced by leading European psychoanalysts who had fled Nazi Germany and come to the United States prior to the war; by the developments and variations in theory and technique espoused by Freud's original followers, such as Jung, Adler, and Rank; and by the neo-Freudians." (Pg. 61)
He notes that Gordon Allport "continually railed against his colleagues who borrowed models from the natural and physical sciences to study human behaviour... he maintained serious reservations about whether human behaviour would ever be completely understood through scientific means alone... Allport believed that every human or social problem had to be approached according to the specific particulars or conditions involved." (Pg. 120)
About Friedrich ("Fritz") Perls, founder of Gestalt Therapy, he observes, "Perls left New York in 1956 for Miami. Depressed, withdrawn, and bitter toward his professional colleagues, feeling that Gestalt Therapy would never have the impact he had hoped for, Perls saw few patients... and lived an impoverished, lonely, and futile existence. Then, at sixty-five, Perls met Marty, a thirty-two-year-old woman patient, and experienced his second emotional rebirth... Perls had been revitalized by his relationship with Marty and in 1960, assisted by a former student, Jim Simkin, Perls established himself in Los Angeles. Simkin also helped Perls cut down on his use of LSD, which he had been taking regularly since 1957. This was, of course, long before hallucinogenic drugs became popular... heavy use of the drug over several years produced frequent bouts of paranoid and hostile behavior, which even his close associates found intolerable." (Pg. 201-202)
He states, "Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy has been included... on the basis of the therapeutic technique involved, which is its distinguishing feature. Although Janov sees his approach as unique... [there are a] number of similarities ... [with] direct body contact therapy, not the least of which are the 'screams' emitted by patients involved... it shares many of the same theoretical assumptions regarding neurotic behaviour we have discovered in Rogerian and Gestalt Therapy. There are also close similarities in therapeutic goals. Janov would hotly contest such comparisons, of course, in light of his assertion that Primal Therapy is the only cure for neurosis, and cannot be integrated with other therapies." (Pg. 221) Later, he adds, "Had Janov not initially adopted his self-aggrandizing, presumptuous, and unprofessional style, Primal Therapy might have received little attention." (Pg. 224)
He recounts that Claude Steiner [author of Scripts People Live, and a friend and associate of Eric Berne, author of Games People Play] "wrote that Berne lived out a script of his own. Berne's script appears evident in two areas: in his inability to achieve one of the four TA goals, intimacy, and in his approach to his work... 'I believe that Eric was himself under the influence of a life script that called for an early death of a broken heart...'" (Pg. 317)
This is a very helpful and detailed analysis and survey---particularly of the therapies that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.
At the time this book was published in 1982, David R. Cole was Dean of the School of Applied Arts at the Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ontario. He begins the first chapter by saying, "This text is the outcome of five years of teaching a course on theories and methods of counselling and psychotherapy to social work and health services work students at the community college level... although the text has been developed in conjunction with a specific course, the material is organized and presented in such a way that it is applicable to a much wider audience." (Pg. 2-3)
He states, "The period following the [First World War] was significant. American psychiatry was being strongly influenced by leading European psychoanalysts who had fled Nazi Germany and come to the United States prior to the war; by the developments and variations in theory and technique espoused by Freud's original followers, such as Jung, Adler, and Rank; and by the neo-Freudians." (Pg. 61)
He notes that Gordon Allport "continually railed against his colleagues who borrowed models from the natural and physical sciences to study human behaviour... he maintained serious reservations about whether human behaviour would ever be completely understood through scientific means alone... Allport believed that every human or social problem had to be approached according to the specific particulars or conditions involved." (Pg. 120)
About Friedrich ("Fritz") Perls, founder of Gestalt Therapy, he observes, "Perls left New York in 1956 for Miami. Depressed, withdrawn, and bitter toward his professional colleagues, feeling that Gestalt Therapy would never have the impact he had hoped for, Perls saw few patients... and lived an impoverished, lonely, and futile existence. Then, at sixty-five, Perls met Marty, a thirty-two-year-old woman patient, and experienced his second emotional rebirth... Perls had been revitalized by his relationship with Marty and in 1960, assisted by a former student, Jim Simkin, Perls established himself in Los Angeles. Simkin also helped Perls cut down on his use of LSD, which he had been taking regularly since 1957. This was, of course, long before hallucinogenic drugs became popular... heavy use of the drug over several years produced frequent bouts of paranoid and hostile behavior, which even his close associates found intolerable." (Pg. 201-202)
He states, "Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy has been included... on the basis of the therapeutic technique involved, which is its distinguishing feature. Although Janov sees his approach as unique... [there are a] number of similarities ... [with] direct body contact therapy, not the least of which are the 'screams' emitted by patients involved... it shares many of the same theoretical assumptions regarding neurotic behaviour we have discovered in Rogerian and Gestalt Therapy. There are also close similarities in therapeutic goals. Janov would hotly contest such comparisons, of course, in light of his assertion that Primal Therapy is the only cure for neurosis, and cannot be integrated with other therapies." (Pg. 221) Later, he adds, "Had Janov not initially adopted his self-aggrandizing, presumptuous, and unprofessional style, Primal Therapy might have received little attention." (Pg. 224)
He recounts that Claude Steiner [author of Scripts People Live, and a friend and associate of Eric Berne, author of Games People Play] "wrote that Berne lived out a script of his own. Berne's script appears evident in two areas: in his inability to achieve one of the four TA goals, intimacy, and in his approach to his work... 'I believe that Eric was himself under the influence of a life script that called for an early death of a broken heart...'" (Pg. 317)
This is a very helpful and detailed analysis and survey---particularly of the therapies that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.
Displaying 1 of 1 review