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“Books by Nancy McWilliams used in unison make the best psychodynamic resources I have yet encountered in more than 60 years in the field.”

—Robert C. Lane, PhD, Department of Psychology, Nova Southeastern University


“This beautifully written, uniquely accessible guide to the psychoanalytic understanding of clinical cases will be of immense value to students and practitioners of all theoretical persuasions. I predict it will be among the most important and widely used books in this field for years to come.”

—George E. Atwood, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey


“Psychoanalytic Case Formulation is a worthy successor to Psychoanalytic Diagnosis. Nancy McWilliams has a pellucid writing style that brings complex concepts within the easy grasp of the reader. She has produced a book that is intelligently psychoanalytic without being restricted to any single vision of psychoanalysis. The critical concepts are developed well and the issues important to assessment—a concept that goes well beyond diagnosis—are explicated clearly and helpfully. This is a rare book that can serve as a text for beginning students and still has much to offer to accomplished professionals.”

—George Stricker, PhD, The Derner Institute, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY

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Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Relationship between Case Formulation and Psychotherapy

2. Orientation to Interviewing

3. Assessing What Cannot Be Changed

4. Assessing Developmental Issues

5. Assessing Defense

6. Assessing Affects

7. Assessing Identifications

8. Assessing Relational Patterns

9. Assessing Self-Esteem

10. Assessing Pathogenic Beliefs

Concluding Comments

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About the Author

Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP, is Visiting Professor Emerita at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and has a private practice in Lambertville, New Jersey. She is author or editor of acclaimed books, including Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Second Edition, and has published widely in professional journals. Dr. McWilliams is a past president of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, Division 39 of the American Psychological Association (APA). She is the recipient of honors including the Gradiva Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, the Erikson Scholar Award from the Austen Riggs Center, the Goethe Scholarship Award from the Section on Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychology of the Canadian Psychological Association, the Rosalee Weiss Award from the Division of Independent Practitioners of the APA, the Laughlin Distinguished Teacher Award from the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians, the Hans H. Strupp Award from the Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society, and the International, Leadership, and Scholarship Awards from APA Division 39. She is an honorary member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Turin, Italy, and the Warsaw Scientific Association for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Dr. McWilliams’s writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.

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Audience

Mental health practitioners and students, regardless of primary theoretical orientation.

Serves as a text for graduate-level students of clinical psychology and psychiatry and for trainees in psychoanalytic institutes.

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Course Use

Serves as a text for graduate-level students of clinical psychology and psychiatry and for trainees in psychoanalytic institutes.