Abstract

This book provides a thorough critique of the dominating medical understanding of psychotherapy and argues for a dynamic relational understanding of psychotherapy, deeply founded in the most important results from empirical psychotherapy research. In the first part, the book critically examines the traditional focus on technical factors in psychotherapy based on available empirical research on the subject. It asks questions about whether specific techniques cure specific diagnoses or therapists and therapeutic relationships that cure persons. Part II of the book argues that the currently dominating medical understanding of psychotherapy must be challenged by a better understanding of psychopathology and psychotherapy that contextualizes the relationship between therapist and the patient. Overall, this book provides a new approach to some of the most important questions in psychotherapy and discusses what it means to think and work psychotherapeutically. The book is highly relevant for professionals in clinical/psychotherapy training and for advanced courses in psychotherapy, including courses on mentalization-based therapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and eclectic psychotherapy.