The Value of Psychotherapy: The Talking Cure in an Age of Clinical Science Paperback – 23 September 2015

First of all, this is a wonderful book. It is beautifully written.I did not expect it to be a page-turner, but it really grabbed me. I picked it up to better understand my own experiences as a psychotherapy patient, but found much more. I think the book is aimed at scholars, but it is so lively and witty that I could not put it down. I have a whole new appreciation for psychotherapy and how it fits into to our society. I now understand much better what research in psychiatry really shows us and how little we really know.The reader learns a bit about the beginnings of therapy and how it is being replaced by quick fixes that don't perform as well as their advocates suggest. There is some history, sociology, philosophy in this book, as well as unusually deep and wise perspective of life and how to live it.I got more than I bargained for. I would recommend this book to laypersons who have any interest in the pursuit of happiness or coping with the pain of life.

This is an unusual and outstanding book. It provides a uniquely powerful critique of the "sophistries" (the author's word) of shallow biomedical and facile cognitive behavior therapy approaches that dominate and distort much of the field if psychotherapy. It revives and beautifully articulates the idea and ideal of "psychotherapy as a humanism." As a distinguished psychologist writes in one of the book's endorsements, it is a "triumph" that relates for both practitioners and students the "therapeutic issues that no one ever tells you about." I can't imagine teaching an undergraduate or graduate course on therapy theory or practice that would not give close attention to this book. It is wise, learned, and, I might add, enormously humorous and witty in many places, very much helping to drive Woolfolk's points home to the reader.

Where to begin? The author begins by pointing out that the ideas in most modern therapy theories did not originate with those who they are attributed to, for example CBT being based on Socrates philosophy. What I would be willing to argue with the author is that Socrates was not sitting in an office working in a therapeutic relationship built on trust and expertise to aid them in changing their emotions or behaviors. So you can essentially skip the first two chapters. The next chapters are filled with gems of the author's opinion, such as when he throws the idea that CBT trained therapists are lesser than therapists who are trained in other modalities first and then learn CBT afterwards. Sorry, anecdotal evidence is not enough, especially of one psychiatrist in one university with a handful of students as his population. Every student who becomes a therapist struggles with becoming a therapist, every single therapist has to deal with their own biases, learning empathy and genuine positive regard for the people we work with, learning the skills necessary to understand how to diagnose and also effectively treat people with a myriad of problems, learning which modalities or theories resonate with them personally and which have the best evidence of their effectiveness.I thought I was going to find a book of evidence for the effectiveness of therapy, instead I struggled with a book full of opinions about modalities and the psychiatric and pharmaceutical community.The problem was the tone of the book, which was entirely combative. What I don't know is who he was combating. Therapy is effective. Almost every form of therapy, even including modern day freudian psychoanalysis are effective. The author seems to be simultaneously railing against psychotherapy practices based on the best evidence we have today, and also attempting to state that therapy is effective.The entire book could be summed up and explained in much better detail in these more exhaustive texts - The Great Psychotherapy Debate; and the Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders.If you have a tertiary knowledge of psychotherapy, enjoy the book and try to understand this is one practitioner's opinion. If you are in the field, then look elsewhere for a less biased book.

This book is a must for anyone who practices psychotherapy, is a therapy patient or who has people in their lives who are in therapy. It is also just a wise statement about what it means to be human and what life's possibilities are. It contains some incisive social commentary that provides an insightful take on what it means to be coping with the stresses of contemporary life.

A challenging, informative, interesting book that leads the reader from the origins of psychotherapy (think Ancient Greece) and psychiatry through all their various movements and provides insightful critiques of modern therapies. Seemingly written for therapists, the elegant prose also accommodates non-clinicians as well since it is jargon free, lively and incorporates a significant amount of humor. A must-read for anyone seeking treatment for mental health problems.