You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In exploring the terrain of the integration of psychoanalysis with behavioral techniques, one quickly discovers the singular contribution of Paul Wachtel. Wachtel began work in this area long before many others even considered such integration possible. His first book, Psychoanalysis and Behavior Therapy, was published in 1977. It has become a classic among the increasing number of practitioners interested in psychotherapy integration. And this number is increasing dramatically, as evidenced by the rapidly expanding international membership of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI), of which Wachtel is a founder.
Although the author has published two other volumes since his first book appeared, Action and Insight may be viewed as a sequel to the first. As one might surmise from its title, a significant portion of the book addresses the interactions among internal processes, behavior, and the interpersonal world. Wachtel approaches both treatment and research viewing the individual in a transactional relation to the environment. Accordingly, he is equally critical of those psychoanalysts with an exclusive intrapsychic focus, and of those behavior therapists who exclude the patient's inner processes. The author's expanded interest in integrating active intervention techniques, conceived more broadly than just those of behavior therapy, is also reflected in the new book.
Going beyond the more circumscribed scope of the first book, this volume is comprised of many of the author's collected papers, covering such wide-ranging topics as Dollard and Miller's conflict theory, the phrasing of interpretations, and the interplay between sociopolitical factors and values in psychotherapy. The breadth of scholarship and mastery of subject matter evident in this book cannot but inspire great respect. The book provides