Reviews for Counseling and Therapy for Couples

The average rating for Counseling and Therapy for Couples based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-06-01 00:00:00 Christina Colby I read Robert Rentoul's book prior to attending the Ferenczi 2015 International Conference in Toronto. I was not deeply familiar with the writing and ideas of Sandor Ferenczi; this book provided all the knowledge I required to make the conference a rich and rewarding experience. The author speaks deeply and movingly about his own evolution as an analyst and about how he, with implied great courage, learned to recognize and address the earliest childhood wounds of his patients. This is what Ferenczi is all about, and why his re-emergence in the world of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis is so important. I would recommend this book for those wishing to understand more about the very difficult work of approaching and healing attachment wounds and early developmental traumas. I would also recommend this book for therapists and interested readers ready to conceptualize a more tender and caring approach and the necessity for such as approach, if we are to heal psychological wounds, rather than re-traumartize or bury them. This is a deeply personal (even as it addresses larger structural issues such as touch in psychotherapy) and an important contribution to our psychoanalytic literature.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-02-09 00:00:00 Stacey Simmons When looking for a book about schizoid personality this was recommended, but I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. It seems very much a product of when it was written (1967) and probably very out of date with the latest developments in psychology. It emphasizes how the body structure and body drawings are related the the psyche. Maybe there is some good stuff here, but the psychological theories are pretty far-out. Not really a surprise since it is based on Freud. For example, "Compulsive eating is a symbolic incorporation of the penis and, in a man, reflects the presence of latent homosexual tendencies in his personality." The central thesis seems to be "the psychotic person is out of contact with his body". So the solution is "acceptance of and an identification with her body". Main features of the schizoid personality are said to be diminished respiration, reduced motility, and bodily rigidity. Briefly, the practical advice given is to breathe deeply relaxing tensions, and mobilize the body though movement. Good advice for anyone right? While the book strikes me as highly strange or useless, perhaps knowledgeable psychologists can tease out the more relevant parts and see some plausible theories. As another reviewer stated, they'd give it 4 stars and <0 stars, and I'm averaging it out to a 2. I'd say skip this unless you want psychoanalysis and find something current instead.