Treating Chronic Depression with Disciplined Personal Involvement

For more than a century, the psychotherapist role has been dominated by Freud's neutrality rule: don't become personally involved with patients! McCullough challenges this widely accepted dictum in a new treatment approach for the chronically depressed patient. He proposes disciplined personal involvement as an alternative to therapist neutrality with chronically depressed patients, describing how this approach can be used in a contingent manner to successfully modify pathological behavior. These latest guidelines expand on his pioneering work, Treatment for Chronic Depression: Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy(CBASP).

In this new volume, Treating Chronic Depression with Disciplined Personal Involvement: CBASP, Dr. McCullough describes in detail what disciplined personal involvement is and how it is administered. The book was written during a current four-year national clinical trial sponsored by NIMH involving 910 chronically depressed outpatients being treated at eight sites in the U. S.

The following topics will be covered:

- Historical review of the psychotherapist neutrality role

- Rationale for disciplined personal involvement in the treatment of chronic depression

- Training veteran psychotherapists to administer disciplined personal involvement

- Numerous verbatim case examples presented to illustrate therapist disciplined personal involvement

- Appendix Section operationalizing the CBASP disciplined personal involvement techniques and discussing needed CBASP research

McCullough's fresh perspective and psychotherapy wisdom make this text a must read for all clinical practitioners, training clinicians in university settings, and psychotherapy researchers. Treating Chronic Depression with Disciplined Personal Involvement: CBASP offers a radically new alternative to the traditional therapeutic relationship.

Preface. - Chapter 1. Disciplined Personal Involvement. Disciplined Personal Involvement Scenarios. Disciplined Personal Involvement for the Chronically Depressed Patient. Use of the Word " patient" . The Self-Disclosure Research Literature. The Aims of the Book. - Part I. The Personal Involvement Taboo and the Needs of the Patient. Chapter 2. The History of the Personal Involvement Taboo. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Carl Rogers (1902-1987). The Therapeutic Alliance Research Tradition (1936-present). The Interpersonal Psychotherapy of Donald J. Kiesler. Personal Involvement Pioneers: Gary Prouty and Kent G. Bailey. - Chapter 3. Treating the Chronically Depressed Patient. Overestimating the Capability of the Chronically Depressed Patient. The Psychopathology of the Chronically Depressed Patient. Interpersonal Isolation of the Chronically Depressed Patient Case History: Sara. - Part II. Pedagogy of CBASP Training. - Chapter 4. Disciplined Personal Involvement Training. Introduction. Rationale for Using Disciplined Personal Involvement. - Personal Issues and Questions of CBASP Trainees. CBASP Therapist Reactions to Personal Involvement Training. Conclusions. - Part III. -Pedagogy of CBASP Treatment. Chapter 5. Creating Contingent Environments Using Disciplined Personal Involvement. Introduction. -Therapist Role Characteristics. Situational Examples of Disciplined Personal Responsivity. Conclusion. - Chapter 6. Healing Interpersonal Trauma Using the Interpersonal Discrimination Exercise. Introduction. Normal and Preoperational Models of Cognitive-Emotional Functioning. - Sessions One and Two of CBASP Therapy. CBASP Transference Hypothesis Construct. The IDE: Discriminating Malevolent Affective Experiences from Healing Ones. IDE Verbatim Scenarios: Demonstrations of the Method. Conclusion. Afterword. - Appendix. Research Investigations to Determine " How" CBASP Works. Two Types of Dependent Variables. Needed Stage II CBASP Research. Performance Measures Reflecting In-Session Acquisition Learning. GTE Measures that Can Be Used In Future Stage II Trials. - Summary of Remaining Stage II Research Questions.