Personality Styles & Brief Psychotherapy

Written for therapists working with people in distress, this book describes the links between crisis and personality style, and offers a plan for approaching cases with these connections in mind. The authors discuss ways to help patients learn new coping strategies, modify enduring attitudes, and improve their relational patterns. The chapters outline the history of brief dynamic psychotherapy, describe an approach focused on current stressors, apply configurational analysis to case formulation and review, and detail five personality types.

Mardi Jon Horowitz, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He has directed a series of programs including the Psychotherapy Evaluation and Study Center, Center for the Study of Neuroses, and Center on Stress and Personality. Dr. Horowitz has published many books, including States of Mind: Configurational Analysis of Individual Personality, Personality Styles and Brief Psychotherapy, and Nuances of Technique in Dynamic Psychotherapy. He is the recipient of the Pioneer Award of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies for his achievements in developing the diagnoses of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and disorders of complicated grief.