Publishing House invited me to write a preface for the new book, and the title of the book "Dialogue in Psychological Therapy" made my eyes shine. I couldn't wait to read, and found more highlights. I hope these passages do not produce misleading "spoilers", but dialogues between readers that help increase the pleasure of reading.
First of all, this book vividly reveals that the dialogue in psychotherapy is very vivid, rich and specific. It is an academic field that closely intersects psychology, medicine and linguistics, and is worthy of in-depth study.
Psychotherapy is often called "talk therapy", and is a process carried out through verbal and non-verbal interactive interpersonal influences. The language used by therapists is the main tool for causing therapeutic changes. Clinical professional "talk" is related to pragmatics (pragmatics). Pragmatics studies the usage and effects of linguistic symbols, and explores the knowledge of how to make discourse cause desired reactions in the conversation object, emphasizing the interaction between verbal behavior, non-verbal behavior and situation. If the three are not coordinated, they will have pragmatic difficulties such as having nothing to say, being insincere, playing the piano with a cow, and going in the opposite direction; the therapist cannot achieve the purpose of helping others, and may even cause side effects such as "scareless effect", or lead to a rupture of the treatment relationship.
Secondly, the author Paul L. Wachtel grasped the essence of the main psychotherapy schools and carried out organic integration in the sense of "metathesis" and "metatechnology".
How to speak involves the following aspects: (1) Purpose - why to say it; (2) Content - what to say; (3) Method - how to say it; (4) Time - when to say it, how many times, how quickly it is said, how long the interview will take place, how long it takes to do it; (5) Space - where to say it; (6) Characters - who speak with whom.
But psychotherapy is not a casual social activity. The conversation between the therapist and the client or patient who comes to seek help is purposeful and is to change the client's unwilling internal and external situation. In order to achieve treatment goals, each psychotherapy school has corresponding theories for defining, describing problems, explaining mechanisms, designing treatment processes, and developing corresponding solutions. The theoretical orientation of the therapist school affects the content and way we speak. Talks without theoretical foundations are water without a source, and therapists cannot do targetedly. However, there are many schools of psychotherapy, and it is unconvincing that beginners often confuse.
I was delighted to see that the author's basic training is psychodynamic therapy, but he has broad vision and tolerant mentality. He sorted out the essence of psychoanalysis , cognitive behavioral therapy, systematic therapy and experiential-oriented therapy. Combined with the research results on the general role factors and common mechanisms of psychotherapy in recent years, he has formed a more universal and inclusive theory to guide us to speak more confidently and targetedly.
Again, this book is fascinating and guides readers to move from linear causal thinking to circular causal thinking. Several major schools can actually play a synergistic role at the clinical level without any contradiction.
In the specific theoretical and operational aspects, several major schools of psychotherapy have been fighting endlessly in history. After the author's collation, integration and sublimation, we can see that although they have their own strengths and even oppose each other in some aspects, they are interoperable at a deeper logical level. As a system-oriented psychiatrist and psychotherapist, I am certainly very happy to see that he has used a large number of systemic therapy concepts and clinical examples to combine traditional and classical psychodynamic concepts with systemic therapy that has been influenced by postmodern constructivism . This was unimaginable when I started learning psychotherapy decades ago.
He repeatedly mentioned Gregory Bateson, Paul Watzlawick and others in his book, which made me feel very intimate and even made me feel a little ashamed of my sometimes disrespectful attitude towards other genres.
Finally, the book focuses on combining theory with practice and guides readers to learn from one example and apply it to others.
The author has a deep foundation in psychoanalysis. After accepting the strengths of other schools, his theories are more creative, flexible and practical. He discussed some common and critical situations, language styles, and vocabulary key operation points in promoting positive development and changes and avoiding side effects. For example, he combined the advantages of strategic therapy, narrative therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and other methods to introduce practical techniques in promoting psychological and behavioral changes in "transference-countertransference", "self-expression", "hint", "reinterpretation", "paradox-counterpartheid", and " attribution -attribution" in promoting psychological and behavioral changes. Another interesting example is that the specific topic of "entertainment phrases" reminds me of the profoundness of Chinese. If the therapist can make good use of idioms and slang, it can cause subtle changes.
20 More than a year ago, I published an article titled "The Operating Language of Psychological Treatment" in " Chinese Journal of Mental Health ". Compared with this book, the content of the article is just a superficial experience. However, some vague insights at that time were well connected and echoed with this book, and now it seems that they are not worthless. In the conclusion, I wrote "Learn the language that promotes growth", and now I will copy part of it as the end of this preface: "Learning language is a lifelong task of a psychotherapist. When facing each counselor or patient, we face the challenge of developing a suitable set of language, and we must store fresh experiences in coded form. Language is the essential form of human life. Use language to process new experiences is a symbol of growth; the process of helping others is the process of maturity of the therapist; mature therapists use language to help the helper grow."
Zhao Xudong Doctor of Medicine
Tongji University Professor of Psychology and Medicine, Chief Physician of Psychology
World Psychology Therapy Society Vice Chairman
0Chinese Mental Health Association Vice Chairman
