evolution of psychotherapy: A meeting of the minds, The

Parsons-Fein, Jane

Zeig, Jeffrey K. (Ed.) The evolution of psychotherapy: A meeting of the minds. $55.00. Phoenix, AZ: Milton H. Erickson Foundation. Reviewed by: Jane Parsons-Fein, CSW, BCD, DAHB, New York, NY.

The Evolution of Psychotherapy: A Meeting of the Minds, edited by Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D., presents the proceedings of the Fourth Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference held in Anaheim, California in 2000. Over 5000 participants attended. The faculty consisted of pioneers in the disciplines of psychotherapy and continued the tradition established in the first Evolution Conference: To create a forum for the meeting of the minds of the great masters and pioneers in the field of psychotherapy. As participants watched the masters agree, disagree, and learn from each other, we could deepen our perspectives and get closer to our own unique clinical artistry. This book is the next best thing to having been there in that it offers us the advantage of exposure to all the diverse faculty approaches. The presentations at the conference ran simultaneously so if we attended one, we missed another. The book offers us the same panorama and, because we can reread the material and catch the ones we couldn't attend, it gives us almost as intimate exposure as being there in vivo.

The book is divided into five sections representing major areas of psychotherapy. We move from psychoanalytic, through cognitive, systemic, experiential, to ethical and social concerns. Each section has presentations by master therapists of a particular theoretical orientation and a discussion or response from a therapist of a different orientation. Not only is there something here for everybodynew stimulation, challenging theories, provocative positions-but the presenters and discussants are engaged in crosscurrents of ideas that can enliven us all, and sometimes shock us into new areas of thinking and feeling. Lawrence Le Shan, Ph.D., the author of many books including Cancer as a Turning Point, has often told his students that if you don't change your therapeutic approach every seven years you run the risk of going stale. There is such a wealth of ideas, creativity, diverse personalities, and genuine disagreement in this book that it is an antidote to going stale.

Each of these people presents a lifetime of work, commitment, changes, and vulnerability and provides interesting, provocative, and expanding ideas. For example, I am a therapist who uses approaches based on the work of Erickson and Satir. However, my understanding of aspects of my own work was clarified when reading Kernberg's comprehensive theoretical presentation entitled "Transference Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Patients." This presentation is an excellent summary of his work which focuses on the "gradual integration of internal world of object relations" (p. 20). I was also particularly struck by Aaron Beck's response to Kernberg's formulations. Working with the cognitive model as opposed to the psychodynamic model he discusses the similarities and differences between these models with a refreshing simplicity, unique to him, I think.

Masterson, in his thorough and beautiful presentation, describes a case history which demonstrates his elegant, impeccable, careful process of bringing the borderline patient into focusing on her relationship with herself, with her disorder-of-the-self triad-a disciplined model.

Hillman's response to Masterson comes from a Jungian position and explores the self beyond the person, invites in the internal community, from dreams, memories, to expand beyond the animus of the mother.

Albert Ellis, the well-known provocateur, has enlivened conferences since the 'fifties by elaborating his sometimes harshly realistic rational-emotive therapy, replete with his unique vocabulary ("musterbations" "awfulizing") and alphabetical symbols (REBT, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy; USA, unconditional self-acceptance). A masterful performer, Ellis loves to shock, and relishes the moments of silence that his statements can elicit. I think that after he left the psychoanalytic fold he was the first to alphabetize his therapeutic system. I once heard Arnold Lazarus laughingly say that Ellis started with RT, then it was RET, then it was REBT. Lazarus said that if Ellis lives to be 150, by then he would have come across Lazarus' Multi-Modal Therapy (MMT) so it would then become REBMMT.

At the end of this presentation Ellis embraces Mindfulness. Whoever would have thought that he would make this spiritual discipline his own? He does it very cleverly, in keeping with his usual style. Maybe this is what LeShan was talking about.

There are many others who provoke and evoke interesting and sometimes brilliant rejoinders. There is Gendlin's "Your body has the whole of your history with each person. Your body has all of what you said and did together" (p. 257). Zeig, in his discussion of Gendlin says: "I follow Goethe who said that man cannot persist long in a conscious state. He must throw himself back to the unconscious, for his roots lie there"(p. 268).

There is the soulful reflection of James Hillman that the lack of beauty in life can create pathology. "Our theories do admit reluctantly that a non-human world influences us" (p. 162). "My scorn is for your generals-the theories you are unwittingly required to practice, theories derived from nineteenth century idolatry of science and statistics, progress and performance, theories that leave out the actual world of things, the natural environment and the invisible" (p. 164).

Donald Meichenbaum's rejoinder to Hillman: "Dr.Hillman and I come from different theoretical perspectives and embrace different methodological frameworks. My approach is more practical in nature" (p. 171). We have Thomas Szasz's radical, thought-provoking, and to some, alarming, reflections on suicide and James Masterson's compassionate rebuttal.

Arnold Lazarus'passionate presentation entitled "Something Must Be Done About the Totalitarian Mentality of Many Ethics Committees and Licensing Boards" is a must read for every professional. It is a frightening concept that accused professionals have to prove their innocence rather than defend it with legal assistance.

Rossi's essay on neurogenesis continues his pioneering work to validate on the level of neurobiology the transformations that can occur in our clinical work.

Zeig also continues to do original and seminal work. He encourages us to amplify our abilities to communicate by using our bodies as well as our minds and gives us concrete images to use. He presents 26 symbolic therapeutic postures as a multilevel metaphor for the hypnotherapeutic process. For those unfamiliar with Milton Erickson, Zeig continues to make deceptively simple and usable the infinite complexity, flexibility, and variety of the doctor who refused to be bored or tied to a theory and who saw every patient as unique. For those of us who worked with Erickson, Zeig keeps re-exploring his genius in refreshing, dramatic, and humorous ways.

The last presentation in the book is a passionate and upsetting State of the Art address by Laura Huxley, bringing new awareness to what we all think we are committed to: The plight of children, especially unwanted children. She presents the following figures (in 2000), as a plea to support her organization, Children Our Ultimate Investment:

In America every 59 seconds a baby is born to a teenager.

Every day 2,745 children drop out of school

Every day 5,753 children are arrested

Every day 8,470 children are reported abused or neglected

Every 2 hours a child is a victim of homicide-and if convicted the murderer of the child receives only one-quarter of the sentence of the murderer of an adult!

Every 2 hours a child commits suicide (p. 359).

She quotes Ralph Nader: "The corporations are electronic child molesters.. .Yearby year parents are losing control over their own children to the omnipenetrating hucksterism of companies...hoping to learn how to stimulate and exploit their anxieties, fears, loneliness, and sensual drives in order to sell, sell, sell."

She then speaks of spirituality and says,"As the immateriality of prayer brings concrete results in transforming the chemistry of illness into the alchemy of health, so does loving a being before it is conceived bring untold rewards to the baby and the parents, And society too will profit" (p. 392).

There is much more that is stimulating in this book. The only criticism I have of the book is that the contributors' names, degrees, affiliations, and addresses are not listed. Perhaps more importantly, there is neither a subject index nor an author's index to guide the interested reader. Not having an index in a professional book of this kind is a significant omission. However, these criticisms are minor compared to the value of this book.

It became clearer to me after reading all these presentations how much therapists of different orientations need each other to challenge ourselves to refine and deepen our theories, and to help each other not get stuck in theory, to open to the healing moments beyond theory. Our minds meet and we change each other; we grow through our differences. The Evolution Conference, and this book, provide a forum for us as a professionals to do just that.

Phoenix, AZ: Milton H. Erickson Foundation. Reviewed by: Jane Parsons-Fein, CSW, BCD, DAHB, New York, NY.

Copyright American Society of Clinical Hypnosis Oct 2004
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