The Empathic Healer: An Endangered Species?
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Table of contents
- Contentsvii
- Acknowledgmentsxi
- Forewordxiii
- Prefacexxi
- Chapter 1. The Health Care System Has Lost its Heart1
- Introduction1
- Managed Health Care4
- From Physician-Healer to Physician-Scientist5
- A Working Definition of Clinical Empathy7
- Empathy from 10,000 Feet8
- Empathy and the Arts10
- The Evolving Health Care System12
- Outline of the Book15
- Clinical Empathy: Reform or Relic?19
- References21
- Chapter 2. The History of Empathy in Mental Health Care25
- Origins: Feeling into a Work of Art26
- Empathy as a Therapeutic Strategy29
- Empathy and Experiential Healing38
- Conclusions45
- References46
- Chapter 3. Empathy and the Listening Healer49
- Listening and Reciprocity57
- Conclusions64
- References67
- Chapter 4. Empathy: Facilitators and Barriers69
- Sympathy and Empathy71
- The Patient77
- The Therapist82
- Conclusions89
- References90
- Chapter 5. Empathy and Ideology93
- The Greeks Had a Word for It94
- Dualism and Mental Illness96
- Monism: The Dominance of Brain99
- Monism: The Dominance of Mind102
- The Pendulum Swings Again107
- Converging Trends109
- Conclusions112
- References114
- Chapter 6. Empathy and the Brain117
- Psychosomatics120
- Neo-Darwinism and Genetic Plasticity123
- Genetic Plasticity and Empathy125
- From Circuits to Brain Maps128
- Empathy and the Biology of Memory130
- Consciousness: Is It Overrated?135
- Conclusions140
- References142
- Chapter 7. Treaters and Healers145
- The Empathic Treater156
- Conclusions157
- References159
- Chapter 8. Empathy and the Focus of Psychotherapy161
- Psychotherapy in Organized Systems of Care163
- The Concept of a Focus in Psychotherapy166
- Focus and Complex Disorders170
- Finding the Focus: The Importance of a Formulation172
- Focus and Brevity177
- Formulation and Clinical Ideology178
- The Science of Formulation181
- Conclusions187
- References189
- Chapter 9. Focal Psychotherapy193
- The Process of Assessment195
- Why Now?196
- What Now?200
- What Impasse Must Be Overcome?203
- What Next?207
- Conclusions: Empathy and Focal Psychotherapy209
- References212
- Chapter 10. Empathy Redux213
- Features of the Healing Environment215
- Marriage and the Healing Environment219
- The Interpersonal Environment and the Immune System221
- Healing in a Technological Era224
- Virtual Empathy226
- Preserving an Endangered Species227
- Empathy Redux231
- References233
- Bibliography237
- Index251
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
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