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“This essential text is highly useful to all practitioners of any theoretical orientation….[McWilliams's] writing style is much like she describes her therapy sessions….Her personal sharing gives the text a soul and you feel you are with a warm and wise teacher….This text [is] as enjoyable as it is enlightening….It goes into great detail about personality organization, defensive functioning, and character styles and describes how they impact treatment.”

—DIVISION/Review


“With humor, warmth, and enthusiasm, Dr. McWilliams instills confidence while making the book a delectable read. There is no doubt that the goal of 'enhancing practice' has been achieved. This book is highly recommended to any clinician-in-training as a foundation for psychoanalytic thinking and also to any practicing therapist as a well-structured and comprehensive resource....This book will be a rich addition to learning about psychoanalytic diagnosis (and psychoanalytic concepts) for any younger mental health professional who is seriously interested in depth psychology. It will also be a valuable tool for more experienced clinicians and educators who would like assistance in translating fairly complex concepts into language that can be appreciated by learners of a variety of different levels of sophistication and disciplinary backgrounds.”

—Journal of Clinical Psychiatry


“If a 'charming textbook' seems like an oxymoron, then welcome to Nancy McWilliams's Psychoanalytic Diagnosis. Her book is just such a wonder....McWilliams has succeeded in producing a book for initial learning that will remain on her readers' desks as a frequently thumbed manual.”

—Psychoanalytic Books (on the first edition)


“Thanks to McWilliams's excellent book, those of us who teach or supervise can at last offer our students and supervisees a comprehensive, exceptionally well-organized text on diagnosis, grounded in evolving psychoanalytic theory and focused on linking diagnosis to the appropriate therapeutic response....Experienced therapists will enjoy a thorough 'refresher' course while also absorbing new ideas, and less experienced clinicians will gain a solid structural foundation and essential guidelines for their clinical work.”

—Contemporary Psychology (on the first edition)


“This is a book for all clinicians who aspire to understand their clients deeply and help them live more richly and authentically. McWilliams synthesizes a century of cumulative clinical wisdom and offers it in a form that is accessible and useful to clinicians of any theoretical persuasion. The first edition of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis was an instant classic; the second edition is exceptionally lucid and masterful. This is McWilliams, master clinician and teacher, at her very best.”

—Jonathan Shedler, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine


“In revising Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, McWilliams has surpassed herself. The original—deservedly regarded as a classic—was an integrative tour de force; the second edition is even better. Informed by current advances in neuroscience and infant research, and reshaped in light of the 'relational turn' in contemporary psychoanalysis, this book distills a vast literature on development, psychopathology, and therapy into an extraordinarily useful map of the clinical terrain. It is at once an indispensable resource for beginning therapists, a valuable teaching tool, and a comprehensive reference for seasoned clinicians.”

—David J. Wallin, PhD, private practice, Mill Valley and Albany, California


“In this accessible and impassioned book, McWilliams provides organizing principles to help us understand psychopathology without oversimplifying or evading the difficult questions raised by diagnosis. Reading McWilliams's book will make you feel like you know her. Her extraordinary humanity, wisdom, deep sense of ethics, and steady concern for her patients are evident throughout. The second edition includes an updated presentation of attachment theory, addresses the contributions of relational theory and neuroscience research, and integrates a contemporary understanding of somatization and defense. A 'must read' for every clinician in training.”

—Joyce A. Slochower, PhD, Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York University

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Table of Contents

Introduction

I. Conceptual Issues

1. Why Diagnose?

2. Psychoanalytic Character Diagnosis

3. Developmental Levels of Personality Organization

4. Implications of Developmental Levels of Organization

5. Primary Defensive Processes

6. Secondary Defensive Processes

II. Types of Character Organization

7. Psychopathic (Antisocial) Personalities

8. Narcissistic Personalities

9. Schizoid Personalities

10. Paranoid Personalities

11. Depressive and Manic Personalities

12. Masochistic (Self-Defeating) Personalities

13. Obsessive and Compulsive Personalities

14. Hysterical (Histrionic) Personalities

15. Dissociative Psychologies

Appendix. Suggested Diagnostic Interview Format

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About the Author

Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP, is Visiting Professor Emerita in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and has a private practice in Lambertville, New Jersey. She is author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Second Edition; Psychoanalytic Case Formulation; Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy; and Psychoanalytic Supervision; and is coeditor of Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, Second Edition. She is a past president of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, Division 39 of the American Psychological Association (APA), and is on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology. A graduate of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, Dr. McWilliams is also affiliated with the Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She is the recipient of honors including the Gradiva Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis; the Goethe Scholarship Award from the Section on Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychology of the Canadian Psychological Association; the Rosalee Weiss Award from the Division of Independent Practitioners of the APA; the Laughlin Distinguished Teacher Award from the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians; the Hans H. Strupp Award from the Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society; and the International, Leadership, and Scholarship Awards from APA Division 39. Dr. McWilliams is an honorary member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society, the Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Turin, Italy, and the Warsaw Scientific Association for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Her writings have been translated into 20 languages.

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Audience

Clinicians and graduate students in all of the mental health disciplines, including clinical psychology, social work, psychiatry, and counseling.

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Course Use

Serves as a text in graduate-level psychotherapy courses and in psychoanalytic institutes.

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Previous editions published by Guilford:

First Edition, © 1994
ISBN: 9780898621990

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New to this edition:

• Reflects the ongoing development of the author's approach over nearly two decades.
• Incorporates important advances in attachment theory, neuroscience, and the study of trauma.
• Material on the contemporary relational movement in psychoanalysis.
• A number of the case examples are entirely new.