Empathic Healer (eBook)

An Endangered Species?

Michael J. Bennett (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2001 | 1. Auflage
260 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-08-051882-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Empathy has long been regarded as central to the art of medicine and especially to the practice of psychotherapy. The ability of a therapist to appreciate the patient's state of mind and frame of reference is the foundation of a therapeutic alliance and key to the process of healing. However, these subjective aspects of practice are rendered suspect by today's emphasis on objectivity: formal diagnosis, with biological treatments, and standardized methodologies that appear to be aimed more at disease than at the person who suffers from it. Pressured by the practice climate and by the advances of science, practitioners have become treatment specialists and the empathic healer has become an endangered species.
In this book, the author establishes a new foundation for the use and value of clinical empathy that is based on a distinction between treatment and healing and a model for using psychotherapy as a component of an organized system of care: focused, attuned to the patient's presenting motive, and consistent with our understanding of the relationship between mind and brain.
Practicing mental health professionals and students find the rationale for assessment and treatment planning in The Empathic Healer an invaluable aide as they seek to adapt to the marvelous discoveries about how the brain shapes and recovers from mental disorder, and how an empathic environment fosters recovery and healing within and beyond the treatment setting.

Key Features
* Establishes the historical roots of the concept of clinical empathy and its relationship to healing
* Elaborates the ideological and environmental factors that enhance or interfere with empathy
* Explores the biological importance of empathy as a feature of the normal human brain
* Argues for the integration of mind and brain in a new dualism
* Presents a vision of psychotherapy as an important component of an organized system of care
* Differentiates between the treating and healing functions, and suggests how each relies on empathy
* Suggests how an endangered species may be preserved in the present technological era

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Empathy has long been regarded as central to the art of medicine and especially to the practice of psychotherapy. The ability of a therapist to appreciate the patient's state of mind and frame of reference is the foundation of a therapeutic alliance and key to the process of healing. However, these subjective aspects of practice are rendered suspect by today's emphasis on objectivity: formal diagnosis, with biological treatments, and standardized methodologies that appear to be aimed more at disease than at the person who suffers from it. Pressured by the practice climate and by the advances of science, practitioners have become treatment specialists and the empathic healer has become an endangered species. In this book, the author establishes a new foundation for the use and value of clinical empathy that is based on a distinction between treatment and healing and a model for using psychotherapy as a component of an organized system of care: focused, attuned to the patient's presenting motive, and consistent with our understanding of the relationship between mind and brain. Practicing mental health professionals and students find the rationale for assessment and treatment planning in The Empathic Healer an invaluable aide as they seek to adapt to the marvelous discoveries about how the brain shapes and recovers from mental disorder, and how an empathic environment fosters recovery and healing within and beyond the treatment setting. Establishes the historical roots of the concept of clinical empathy and its relationship to healing Elaborates the ideological and environmental factors that enhance or interfere with empathy Explores the biological importance of empathy as a feature of the normal human brain Argues for the integration of mind and brain in a new dualism Presents a vision of psychotherapy as an important component of an organized system of care Differentiates between the treating and healing functions, and suggests how each relies on empathy Suggests how an endangered species may be preserved in the present technological era

Inhalt

Front Cover 1
The Empathic Healer: An Endangered Species? 4
Copyright Page 5
Contents 8
Acknowledgments 12
Foreword 14
Preface 22
Chapter 1. The Health Care System Has Lost its Heart 26
Introduction 26
Managed Health Care 29
From Physician-Healer to Physician-Scientist 30
A Working Definition of Clinical Empathy 32
Empathy from 10,000 Feet 33
Empathy and the Arts 35
The Evolving Health Care System 37
Outline of the Book 40
Clinical Empathy: Reform or Relic? 44
References 46
Chapter 2. The History of Empathy in Mental Health Care 50
Origins: Feeling into a Work of Art 51
Empathy as a Therapeutic Strategy 54
Empathy and Experiential Healing 63
Conclusions 70
References 71
Chapter 3. Empathy and the Listening Healer 74
Listening and Reciprocity 82
Conclusions 89
References 92
Chapter 4. Empathy: Facilitators and Barriers 94
Sympathy and Empathy 96
The Patient 102
The Therapist 107
Conclusions 114
References 115
Chapter 5. Empathy and Ideology 118
The Greeks Had a Word for It 119
Dualism and Mental Illness 121
Monism: The Dominance of Brain 124
Monism: The Dominance of Mind 127
The Pendulum Swings Again 132
Converging Trends 134
Conclusions 137
References 139
Chapter 6. Empathy and the Brain 142
Psychosomatics 145
Neo-Darwinism and Genetic Plasticity 148
Genetic Plasticity and Empathy 150
From Circuits to Brain Maps 153
Empathy and the Biology of Memory 155
Consciousness: Is It Overrated? 160
Conclusions 165
References 167
Chapter 7. Treaters and Healers 170
The Empathic Treater 181
Conclusions 182
References 184
Chapter 8. Empathy and the Focus of Psychotherapy 186
Psychotherapy in Organized Systems of Care 188
The Concept of a Focus in Psychotherapy 191
Focus and Complex Disorders 195
Finding the Focus: The Importance of a Formulation 197
Focus and Brevity 202
Formulation and Clinical Ideology 203
The Science of Formulation 206
Conclusions 212
References 214
Chapter 9. Focal Psychotherapy 218
The Process of Assessment 220
Why Now? 221
What Now? 225
What Impasse Must Be Overcome? 228
What Next? 232
Conclusions: Empathy and Focal Psychotherapy 234
References 237
Chapter 10. Empathy Redux 238
Features of the Healing Environment 240
Marriage and the Healing Environment 244
The Interpersonal Environment and the Immune System 246
Healing in a Technological Era 249
Virtual Empathy 251
Preserving an Endangered Species 252
Empathy Redux 256
References 258
Bibliography 262
Index 276

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.4.2001
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Klinische Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Gesundheitsfachberufe
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Psychiatrie / Psychotherapie
• ISBN-10: 0-08-051882-6 / 0080518826
• ISBN-13: 978-0-08-051882-4 / 9780080518824