The Clinical Interview of Adolescent: From Assessment and Formulation to Treatment Planning. - book reviews

Adolescence, Spring, 1998

This book addresses the process of interviewing troubled and psychologically disturbed adolescents - in hospital settings, schools, courts, clinics, and residential facilities. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of theoretical material designed to acquaint the reader with a schema or template that incorporates a modified and updated version of Erikson's developmental stages as well as essential tenets of contemporary psychoanalytic theory.

Chapter 2 is designed to address introductory issues in relation to referral. Chapter 3 involves the initial interview with the parents or those entrusted with the care of the adolescent (e.g., foster parents, residential caretakers, hospital staff, court personnel, and teachers). Chapter 4 discusses the qualifications and attributes of the therapist, centering on the basic and essential qualities that serve to define those clinicians who are reasonably successful with the adolescent patient. Chapter 5 focuses on the initial stage of the interview. Chapter 6 concerns the middle part of the interview, where the focus shifts to the problems or conflicts referenced in the referral or disclosed in the initial part of the interview. Chapter 7 emphasizes the inductive-deductive diagnostic process which results in some type of assessment or closure. Chapter 8 describes the dimensions of the formulation, a four-part integrative procedure, which is designed to communicate to the adolescent the reasons and rationale for his or her problems and what needs to be done to remedy or improve the situation. Chapter 9 details the phenomena of transference and countertransference as these present in initial interview material.