Inner strengths : contemporary psychotherapy and hypnosis for ego-strengthening

411 Pages·1999·9.195 MB·English

by  McNeal, Shirley, Frederick, Claire

Personality and Clinical
Psychology Series
♦
editor
Irving B. Weiner
INNER STRENGTHS
Contemporary Psychotherapy
and Hypnosis for Ego-Strengthening
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INNER STRENGTHS
Contemporary Psychotherapy
and Hypnosis for Ego-Strengthening
Claire Frederick, MD
Shirley McNeal, PhD
B Routledge
Taylor &rrancis Group
NEW YORK AND LONDON
First Published by
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430-2262
Transferred to Digital Printing 2009 by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
27 Church Road, Hove, Hast Sussex BN3 2FA
Copyright ©1999 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe reproduced
in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or
any other means, without the prior written permission of
the publisher.
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Cover artwork, entitled “Winter Solstice,"
by Geri Meyer, used with permision
of David and Karen Tillitt
Library of Congress Cataloging'in'Publication Data
Frederick, Claire.
Inner strengths ; contemporary psychotherapy and hyp­
nosis for ego-strengthening / Claire Frederick, Shirley
McNeal.
p. cm. — (LEA series in personality and clinical psychology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-2573-8 (cloth ; alk. paper)
1. Psychotherapy. 2. Hypnotism. 3. Ego strength.
I. McNeal, Shireley. II. Title. III. Series.
RC480.5.F7446 1998
616.89’14—dc21 98-27717
CIP
Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality
of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the
original may be apparent.
DEDICATIONS
To the late Maria Cicoria Touchet:
Genius and visionary, you saw all this years ago
—CF
In loving memory of my mother, Beulah Brown McNeal:
You taught me the love of the written word
—SM
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CONTENTS
Foreword
Stephen Gilligan ix
Foreword
John G. Watkins and Helen H. Watkins xiii
Preface xv
CHAPTER 1 Ego-Strengthening: 1
The Therapeutic Tradition
CHAPTER 2 Ego-Strengthening: The Classical 23
Hypnotic Tradition
CHAPTER 3 Ego-Strengthening: The Ericksonian 49
Tradition
CHAPTER 4 The Ego-State Model in Hypnotic 72
and Nonhypnotic Psychotherapy
CHAPTER 5 The Utilization of Time as a Vehicle 95
for Projective/Evocative Ego-Strengthening
CHAPTER 6 The Ego: Its Composition 128
CHAPTER 7 Internal Self-Soothing 147
and the Development of the Self
vii
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER 8 Inner Love: Projective/Evocative 182
Ego-Strengthening With Inner
Resources of Love
CHAPTER 9 Good Fences Make Good Neighbors: 201
Internal Boundary Formation
CHAPTER 10 Other Projective/Evocative Techniques 223
CHAPTER 11 Ego-Strengthening in the Treatment 243
of Performance Anxiety
CHAPTER 12 Ego-Strengthening in the Treatment 268
of Complex Clinical Syndromes
CHAPTER 13 Ego-Strengthening With Posttraumatic 289
and Dissociative Disorders I: Overview,
Stabilization, and the Repair
of Developmental Deficits
CHAPTER 14 Ego-Strengthening With Posttraumatic 315
and Dissociative Disorders II:
Uncovering and Integration
CHAPTER 15 The Strengthened Ego and the 328
Transpersonal Self in Living and Dying
Appendix 347
References 351
FOREWORD
Stephen Gilligan
A letter arrived in the mail yesterday. It was from a woman who had been
in therapy with me some years back. Out of the envelope fell a picture of
her, so happy and proud, holding a beautiful, bright-eyed infant. A typed
message formally announced that she had adopted this baby, and written
underneath were simply the words, “With amazement, gratitude, and joy!!"
Indeed! What an incredible sight to behold the beauty of both mother and
child, reflected in their sparkling eyes. How different was the look in her
eyes from when she had started therapy. Then she was depressed, suicidal,
deeply pained. She felt useless, unlovable, and isolated. For my part, I felt
overwhelmed by her at many points in the work, wondering if and how her
healing might occur. Even when she terminated therapy after several years,
coinciding with a job-related move back to the east coast, I wondered how
she would fare. I was cautiously hopeful but then lost track of her. The
picture was a welcome answer to my curiosities and hopes about her
continued development.
Part of the difficulty was that many things I tried with her just did not
work. They seemed to appropriately map into the client’s patterns, but
something inside her just couldn’t or wouldn’t positively respond. It was
dismaying and frustrating to both of us that the therapeutic work progressed
so slowly and haphazardly. That it was ultimately successful despite my
fumblings is a testimony to her great strengths and commitment.
That therapy can succeed without the therapist being brilliant or all-
knowing is one of the better kept secrets in the clinical field. Actually, it
seems that many times the therapist actually needs to fail in order for the
therapy to succeed. It is only then that the patient’s own resources can
adequately be appreciated as the ultimate determinant of therapeutic
success.
I wish that this wonderful book written by Claire Frederick and Shirley
McNeal had been available to me then, for it would have helped me
ix