INTENSIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR PERSISTENT DISSOCIATIVE PROCESSES

Dissociative processes have long burdened trauma survivors with the dilemma of longing to fee! “real“ at the same time as they desperately want to avoid the pain that comes with that healing—a dilemma that ofien presents particularly acute difficulties for healing professionals. Recent clinical and neurobiological research sheds some light into the dark corners of a mmd undergoing persistent dissociation, but its integration into the practice of talking therapy has never, until now, been fully realized.

Intensive Psychotherapy for Persistent Dissociative Processes brings readers into the consultation room, and into the minds of both patient and therapist, like no other work on the treatment of trauma and dissociation. Richard A. Chefetz marries neuroscientific sophistication with a wealth of extended case histories, fol!owing patients over several years and offering several verbatim session transcripts. His unpacking of the emotionally impactful experience of psychodynamic talking therapy is masterfully written, clearly accessible, and singular!y thorough. In the depth of his examples and in continual, seif-reflexive analysis of flaws in past treatments, Chefetz is both a generous guide and an expert storyteller. lntensive Psychotherapy for Persistent Dissociative Processes is unique in its ability to place readers in the consultation room of psychodynamic therapy. With an evidence-focused approach based in neurobiology and a bold clinical scope, it will be indispensible to new and experienced therapists alike as they grapple with the most intractable clinical obstacies. Richard A. Chefetz, MD, is a psychiatrist in private practice in Washington, D.C. He was President ofthe International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (2002-3), and is a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. He is a faculty member at the Washington School of Psychiatiy, the Institute of Contemporaiy Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis, and the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis.