Richard G. Erskine is a master clinician who, through more than fifty years of practice, has integrated diverse schools of psychoanalytic thought – self psychology, object relations, transactional analysis, and Gestalt therapy – with his client-centered background to form his relationally focused, integrative psychotherapy. Alongside eight colleagues, he presents an authoritative guide on working with the schizoid process.
Part I provides an introduction to the schizoid process and an understanding of the concepts and therapeutic interventions required, helpfully illustrated through relevant vignettes that retain the subjective experience of therapist and client.
Part II, the heart of the book, contains a longitudinal case study of Allan. This focuses on the narrative of the psychotherapy sessions interwoven with several salient concepts. It is followed by the observations of two colleagues on the process of the psychotherapy. A representation of professional dialogue, which is so central to refining the practice of psychotherapy.
Part III looks at the clients’ perspective, including a chapter written by a client to provide her personal views on her internal experience of psychotherapy. The final part contains a chapter on the five-year psychotherapeutic journey of a client, Louise. This chapter demonstrates how the theory of the schizoid process is put into therapeutic practice.
This is an essential book for all psychotherapists to widen their understanding of therapeutic practice.
Richard G. Erskine, PhD, Training Director at the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy, is a clinical psychologist with five decades of experience in the clinical practice and teaching of psychotherapy. He has specialised in the treatment of severely disturbed children, run a therapeutic community in a maximum security prison, and conducted his psychotherapy practice in New York City specialising in the treatment of obsession, dissociation, narcissism, schizoid processes.
Professor Ignacio Gómez-Marroquín, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain –
‘Richard Erskine has extended Carl Rogers’ model of psychotherapy by inviting us to go “beyond empathy”; to practice psychotherapy with attunement, involvement, respect, and depth. Through extraordinarily presented cases, the reader will sense the suffering, fear, and loneliness experienced by people trapped between protective withdrawal and their need to be in relationship. I consider his book is fundamental for every psychotherapist since we all have clients who engage in a schizoid process.’
Ruth Birkebaek, MD, UKCP Psychotherapist, London –
‘Richard Erskine brilliantly demonstrates the effectiveness of a developmentally based, relationally focused psychotherapy for the treatment of patients who struggle with internal criticism and relational withdrawal. In this book, Dr. Erskine takes us through his clients’ intrapsychic conflicts and the multi dimensions of the psychotherapy as if he were reading us a story – a story that illustrates a unique psychotherapeutic approach. I strongly recommend this book to both novice and experienced psychotherapists.’
Jane Cooper, former senior counsellor in higher education, BACP Therapy Today, Feb 2024, 35:1 –
‘In this impressive book Erskine gives a masterclass in working with silence. Together with nine invited contributors he explores the schizoid process – a condition way more prevalent that we realise. […] I could not put down this deeply moving account of psychotherapy with a man with an isolated attachment style. The quality of Erskine’s observations and his description of the therapeutic use of self are remarkable. […] This is a gentle, hopeful book from a very experienced clinician.’