Reviews for Collective bargaining and the public interest

The average rating for Collective bargaining and the public interest based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-27 00:00:00 Gary Hill I can easily see someone giving this five stars. Here's my quick run-down of the pros and cons: PROS: -the writing is very accessible and engaging, yet not condescending -this is a great account of the experience of the actual practice psychotherapy from the perspective of the (an) analyst -Luepnitz effectively intersperses interesting and useful bits of theoretical information throughout the text. If you pay attention, you'll know more about some technical elements of psychotherapy after having read the text. She manages to convey the information painlessly - no small task -probably inspirational to many people -will probably get you excited about the power of communication as therapeutic in itself CONS: (actually, CON:) This is implicitly a pro-psychoanalysis book. But as the author (to her credit) clearly explains near the beginning, there is a deep selection bias in her choice of cases. This is necessarily the case, since pissed-off former patients probably wouldn't be inclined to sign a release form to have the gist of their stories included in the book. The problem is that we don't see any of the cases in which Luepnitz failed to help her patients. Is her brand of therapy valuable? We can't know if we only see positive cases. There are three reasons that I can see to be skeptical about the value of what Luepnitz is doing. The first is an extension of the "only positive cases" point: Luepnitz' approach is not compared to null cases (maybe people just get better with time, even without any therapy) or other approaches to therapy (e.g.: cognitive-behavioral therapy). The second is that some of the associations the Luepnitz makes seem incredibly dubious. To put it bluntly, while I believe that she is sincere, it reads like she just makes things up when she's with a client. That's not necessarily harmful, and it may even be helpful. Maybe she really is helping by getting the clients to form associations which (1)allow them to express themselves and/or (2)construct an empowering narrative that allows them to cope and get past problems. If that's the case, then an astrologer or tarot card reader would do just as well. Third, it's not at all clear how this approach could be falsified. Many of these clients take many years before they make clear progress toward mental health. What would it take for Luepnitz to say "Okay, my method is invalid?" It seems that she could always excuse any failure with "He needs more time", or "He's just repressing, which means that he needs even more sessions". To my knowledge, other approaches to therapy are better at specifying the "failure conditions" of their method, and this makes them less suspect. If, however, you think that a Luepnitz-like approach to therapy is defensible - and many very smart people think it is - this will definitely be a feel-good book for you. You'll really enjoy it.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-07-22 00:00:00 Bernd Nitsche A really nice book for practicing therapists. I'm a social worker practicing as a therapist in a community mental health agency - meaning, working exclusively with the Medicaid population. Often times, when I read something on therapy praxis from the psychoanalytic perspective (*cough*Yalom*cough*) it's just way too bougie to feel applicable to my caseload. However, I was surprised to find this Luepntiz text doesn't give the same impression. For example, I about !@#$ my pants when I read that Luepnitz used to work in a psych hospital for less than 9$ an hour. Yes, it was decades ago, but that really put into perspective that Luepnitz DID have experience working in a difficult agency with tough, large caseloads and little compensation. Her work with "Emily" really touched me as it felt very very much like what I try to do, although I confess I can't imagine having the same client for over 6 years! I agree with other reviewers that at time's the author's poetic license with client report waxes unbelievable, but I think she conveys the relevant thematic content. Overall a very worth while read.