top of page

Library

Filter items by Author Last Name

A list of books in my library, sorted alphabetically by title

A Study of Thinking is a pioneering account of how human beings achieve a measure of rationality in spite of the constraints imposed by bias, limited attention and memory, and the risks of error imposed by pressures of time and ignorance. First published in 1956 and hailed at its appearance as a groundbreaking study, it is still read three decades later as a major contribution to our understanding of the mind. In their insightful new introduction, the authors relate the book to the cognitive revolution and its handmaiden, artificial intelligence. The central theme of the work is that the scientific study of human thinking must concentrate upon meaning and its achievement rather than upon the behaviorists' stimuli and responses and the presumed connections between them. The book's point of departure is how human beings group the world of particulars into ordered classes and categories-concepts-in order to impose a coherent and manageable order upon that world. But rather than relying principally on philosophical speculation to make its point, A Study of Thinking reports dozens of experiments to elucidate the strategies that people use in penetrating to the deep structure of the information they encounter. This seminal study was a major event in the cognitive revolution of the 1950s. Reviewing it at the time, J. Robert Oppenheimer said it "has in many ways the flavor of conviction which makes it point to the future."
A Study of Thinking
Book Title

A Study of Thinking

Author:

Jerome Bruner

Reference:

Bruner, J., 1956:2017 A Study of Thinking. Taylor and Francis Group

“I am grateful for what I have learned from reading this book. Each author demonstrates that depressive experiences are field phenomena, contextually emergent and contextually supported, and affecting our environment. They are not isolated events, they are of a field. They emerge from contexts that support depressive experiences. The impoverished conditions ‘speak’ through the person who presents with depression. The perspective this book offers gave me a more nuanced appreciation of the many experiences with depression that my patients and I have lived through. The foundational, even existential significance is clearer to me now. Our perseverance and emotional courage have been cast in a more profound light, which inspires my current work. The combination of clinical insight and theoretical inspiration is breathtaking.” From the Preface by Lynne Jacobs
Absence Is the Bridge Between Us
Book Title

Absence Is the Bridge Between Us: Gestalt Therapy Perspective on Depressive Experiences (Gestalt Therapy Book Series 4).

Author:

Gianni Francesetti

Reference:

Francesetti, G., 2015. Absence Is the Bridge Between Us: Gestalt Therapy Perspective on Depressive Experiences. Kindle ed. s.l.:Istituto di Gestalt HCC

Many therapists can attest to the fact that adolescents can be difficult and frustating clients-problems are seldom well defined, clearly delineated symptoms are more exception than the rule, and troubling situations often involve the entire family. Gestalt therapist Mark McConville draws on his more than twenty years of professional experience to offer clinicians an effective model for understanding and treating adolescents. He outlines the Developmental Tasks Model, which describes adolescents' struggles, "temporary insanity," and ultimately, triumph of development. He clearly demonstrates that the Gestalt therapeutic model bridges the theoretical and clinical gap, and offers an indepth exploration of the various aspects of clinical work. Adolescence offers valuable nuts-and-bolts advice on initiating therapy with adolescents who are not yet ready to do the self-reflective, exploratory work. In addition, the book examines the therapeutic method of engaging and cultivating the adolescent's emerging inner world. With perception and sensitivity, McConville explains how the clinician can guide the adolescent in the very personal and subjective process of birthing and existential self. The book details the process of the creative reorganization of the self during adolescence and explores the changes that take place in the adolescent's relationships with peers, parents, and others in the adult world. The author also tracks the interplay of intrapsychic and interpersonal boundary development and shows how this interplay manifests itself in relationships and evolves from early through late adolescence. The Gestalt model of therapy allows the clinician to make sense of the confusion of the adolescent world and map out the multiple possibilities of clinical interventions
Adolescence
Book Title

Adolescence: Psychotherapy and the Emergent Self

Author:

Mark McConville

Reference:

McConville, M., 2013 Adolescence: Psychotherapy and the Emergent Self. Gestalt Press

Aggression, Time, and Understanding is the first book of Staemmler’s writings to be published in English. In the early sections of this book, Staemmler (supported by his Buddhist wife, Barbara) comprehensively explores and questions the traditional Gestalt therapy theory of aggression and proposes a new approach to working with anger and hostility. Further sections include in-depth examinations of the topics of time (the "Here and Now" and "Regressive Processes") and understanding ("Dialogue and Interpretation" and "Cultivated Uncertainty"). From Staemmler’s "critical gaze," Dan Bloom observes, "concepts emerge as refreshed, re-formed, and revitalized constructs so we can continue to develop the theory and practice of contemporary Gestalt therapy."
Aggression Time and Understanding
Book Title

Aggression, Time, and Understanding: Contributions to the Evolution of Gestalt Therapy.

Author:

Frank-M. Staemmler

Reference:

Frank-M. Staemmler 2009 Aggression, Time, and Understanding: Contributions to the Evolution of Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt Press

This introductory text provides an invaluable and accessible overview of the rapidly developing field of integrative psychotherapy, and offers a relational-developmental approach to theory and practice. The book goes beyond the confines of the therapy room and explores the significance of the cultural, ecological and transpersonal dimensions of therapy by critiquing the philosophical bases underpinning the theoretical model and looking at the nature of resistance in different phases of therapy. This textbook is essential to students needing a comprehensive introduction to integrative psychotherapy and will also be of interest to the seasoned practitioner.
An Introduction to Integrative Psychotherapy
Book Title

An Introduction to Integrative Psychotherapy

Author:

​

Reference:

Evans, K., Gilbert, M., 2005 An Introduction to Integrative Psychotherapy. Bloomsbury Academic

Called "the most significant addition to the body of Gestalt therapy literature in almost two decades," this collection of Yontef's writings encompasses the history and politics of Gestalt therapy, Gestalt therapy theory, field theory and the practice of Gestalt therapy including new chapters on treating people with character disorders and working with shame. Highly recommended as a training text and as a resource for graduate students and scholars.
Awareness Dialogue and Process
Book Title

Awareness Dialogue & Process: Essays on Gestalt Therapy.

Author:

Gary Yontef

Reference:

Yontef, G. 1991 Awareness Dialogue & Process: Essays on Gestalt Therapy. The Gestalt Journal Press. Kindle Edition

In this book, the authors focus on the importance of relationship in psychotherapy. Relationships between people form the basis of our daily lives. We require this contact with others, the sense of respect and value it produces, the relational needs it fulfills. As we face the inevitable traumas of life, large and small, our ability to make full contact with others is often disrupted. As this reduction in contact increases, relational needs go unfulfilled, producing psychological dysfunction. Beyond Empathy offers therapists a methodology for assisting people in rediscovering their ability to maintain genuine, contactful relationships and thus, better psychological health. The authors describe an integrative psychotherapy approach that they have developed and now teach at the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy in New York City. It draws from Rogers' client-centered therapy, Berne's transactional analysis, Perls' Gestalt therapy, Kohut's self psychology, and the work of British object-relations theorists. Written in a conversational style, the book introduces the theory behind the approach while using real life interchanges between therapists and clients to illustrate the concepts it presents. The second part of the book details the application of this method in therapy work and provides almost complete transcripts from seven therapy sessions. These include examples of psychotherapeutic regression, working with a parental introject, couples psychotherapy, and more. The open writing style of this book makes it accessible to both beginners and seasoned practitioners within the field of mental health. This versatile approach to therapy promises to be effective across a wide range of therapeutic situations, making this a valuable book for both students and practicing clinicians throughout the spectrum of mental healthcare providers.
Beyond Empathy
Book Title

Beyond Empathy: A Therapy of Contact-in Relationships.

Author:

Richard G Erskine

Reference:

Erskine, R., Moursund, J., Trautmann, R. 1999 Beyond Empathy: A Therapy of Contact-in Relationships. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

In this pathbreaking and provocative new treatment of some of the oldest dilemmas of psychology and relationship, Gordon Wheeler challenges the most basic tenet of the West cultural tradition: the individualist self. Characteristics of this self-model are our embedded yet pervasive ideas that the individual self precedes and transcends relationship and social field conditions and that interpersonal experience is somehow secondary and even opposed to the needs of the inner self. Assumptions like these, Wheeler argues, which are taken to be inherent to human nature and development, amount to a controlling cultural paradigm that does considerable violence to both our evolutionary self-nature and our intuitive self-experience. He asserts that we are actually far more relational and intersubjective than our cultural generally allows and that these relational capacities are deeply built into our inherent evolutionary nature.
Beyond Individualism
Book Title

Beyond Individualism: Toward a New Understanding of Self, Relationship, and Experience

Author:

Gordon Wheeler

Reference:
bottom of page