Current psychotherapies

by Raymond J. Corsini

One of the most respected and widely used textbooks in its field, CURRENT PSYCHOTHERAPIES provides students of counseling, psychology, and social work with an authoritative treatment of the major systems of psychotherapy. Each contributor is either an originator or a leading proponent of one of the systems, and each presents the basic principles of the system in a clear and straightforward manner, discussing it in the context of the other systems.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, School, Counselling, Reference, Grad School, Textbooks

Paperback

First published May 28, 1973

Reviews

[Marwah Al-Lamee]

The kind of book you thank God it was assigned as part of your class curriculum. Loved it, very simple and straight forward. It is great for anyone new to psychology.

[Red Alibi]

Great summaries of many psychotherapies used today.

It's packed full of information on every page, including the history of the respective psychotherapy, the techniques and applications of the approach and case examples.

Having this as a reference is a must for psychology students and therapists, and it's a great read for those interested in psychotherapy.

[Kristina]

Good but dry.

[Green Iona]

Great resource for understanding different theories

[Maline]

solid textbook, -1 star for how much this course makes me want to kill myself

[Eric]

I can't understand why anyone would call this boring. It's densely packed with information that covers a lot of territory, so by nature of the format, you've got to wrestle with the content to really get a grip on the concepts. That's not because it's particularly difficult, but more because you've got to deal with each author's decisions for balancing content with economy of space. I read this book's ninth edition for a class on psychotherapies and during that semester, I also found my mother's copy of the same book from 1976, which she used for graduate school. The content is updated now, of course, but the principles of organization behind the text remain the same. Each section of the text is written by a different author, and each author is well-experienced with the subject on which they write. This allows you to gain a little insight into why each method or system is favored by a certain individual, while comparing the contrasts between the section's main subject, its antecedents, descendants, and parallels. It can be a nice leisurely read, but I think it's best experienced not treated as such. You have to work with it, which I find more engaging.

[Kirby Rock]

Very textbook-y. Boring. There are much better general psychological theory books out there. My professor for this class was a retired 75-year-old who came back to teach one class because our university is in a financial crisis. I guess I should not have been surprised that his textbook choice wasn't the most innovative. But yes, this is a very comprehensive overview of psychotherapy theories with lots of history, examples, etc. and it is useful for that reason.

[Michael]

The book has a lot of material, but it's well organized and easy to tell what is the most important information for the book. Each chapter follows a similar outline, despite having a variety of authors. I particularly enjoyed the section on existential psychotherapy, as it was written by Irvin Yalom.

[Elisabeth]

This has been one of the most useful books during my Ph.D. work. It is a great resource for quickly learning about the essential individual counseling theories. I definitely plan to recommend it to all of my future students!

[Jyotika Varmani]

I found this to be the best book among the several I went through in this topic. It is very detailed, and at the same time very well organized. It has very good flow, and is easy to understand for someone who is new to psychology. The language is simple and powerful. A must read.

[April]

for spring '09 Counseling Theories & Techniques

[Monika Satyajati]

It's a book that every therapist will always keep coming back to.

[Candace]

Read for graduate program Counseling and Art Therapy.

[Deidre]

For a textbook that needs to cover so much ground, it does a decent job.

[Cris]

This book offers a thorough analysis, interpretation and presentation of the current psychotherapies available to the counselors, therapists, and other professionals that will aid them in using the most appropriate therapeutic approach that has the highest degree of successful treatment. Helping another person reach their best potential through counseling and consultation is among the highest professions that one can aspire to. I am hopeful that I will achieve my lifetime goal of helping others through this beautiful gift of conversation through a skillful use of the psychotherapies shared in this book and help others achieve their best self, highest functioning and greatest sense of personal worth.
Thanks to great men like Dr. Corsini we are able to achieve these lofty goals and become effective people helpers.