Making Contact: Uses of Language in Psychotherapy

by Leston Havens

Since 1955, moving from early work in psychopharmacology to studies of clinical method and the psychiatric schools, Leston Havens has been working toward a general theory of therapy. It often seems that twentieth-century psychiatry, sect-ridden, is a Tower of Babel, as Havens once characterized it. This book is the distillation of long years of thought and practice, a bold yet modest attempt to delineate an “integrated psychotherapy.”

The boldness of this effort lies in its author’s willingness to recognize the best that each school has to offer, to describe it cogently, and to integrate it into a full response to today’s new kind of patient. Descriptive or medical psychiatry, psychoanalysis, interpersonal or behavioristic psychiatry, empathic or existential therapy-viewed in metaphors, respectively, of perceiving, thinking, managing, feeling-all have useful contributions to make to contemporary methods of treatment. But how? Havens’s modest answer is through appropriate language, and he demonstrates exactly what he means: when to ask questions, when to direct or draw back, when to sympathize.

Practitioners now must deal with less dramatic, but more stubborn, problems of character and situation; lack of purpose, isolation, submissiveness, invasiveness, deep yet vague dissatisfaction. Some kind of human presence must be discovered in the patient, and Havens gives concrete, absorbing examples of ways of “speaking to absence,” of making contact. The emphasis is on verbal technique, but the underlying broad, humane intent is everywhere evident. It is no less than to transform passivity, by means of disciplined therapeutic concern, into a state of being Human.

Genres: Psychology

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Leston Laycock Havens (July 31, 1924–July 29, 2011) was an American psychiatrist and psychotherapist known best for his work on biological psychiatry, rehabilitation of severely ill patients, and methods of interviewing patients.

Reviews

[Jon Frederickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had to choose out of the thousands of books I've read, the top ten ever written on psychotherapy, this would be on the list. A simply brilliant book on how to make contact with patients who have trouble connecting to themselves or others. Unlike many books which help therapists work with the mildly troubled, this book delves deeply into the myriad ways we need to connect with patients who have trouble tolerating relationships with others. Full of excellent clinical vignettes, I consider this one of the great classics in the psychotherapy field.

[Ranjan Patel, Psy.D, MFT · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book. In grad school in my psychology program, it influenced me beyond what I can describe. Havens writes from an interpersonal, subjective, phenomenological, linguistic perspective. The empathy he heaps on the subject matter--and on his clients--is a marvel. He describes and elucidates with such clarity his language choices, the way he talks to clients, his choice of words, phrases and questions, his statements. Always, he was mindful of not making the client feel accused and to extract maximum information while being optimally therapeutic. His words, as he teaches, drips with kindness and gentleness; his presence itself is healing, and somehow he magically transfers and embodies this in his writing. This book became lodged in my soul and I took to heart his way of Being, to the point that each time I'm with a client, his words reinforce who I already was. I fell more than a little bit in love with, oddly one of my guiding theoretical idols. The world of psychiatry and psychology was lucky he chose these realms. He gifted us, beyond the arc of people he directly touched, to those us who indirectly benefited from his wisdom. Please, if you're in the profession--or about to go into it, do yourself a favor and read it. If you're a client in therapy, read it and share with your therapist. If you're not in therapy but contemplating it, read it for it surely will tempt you to take the therapeutic plunge :-) And if you fit in neither of these groups and simply want a terrific read by a master of storytelling with prose as clear as lake, read it.

[Jeroen]

Soms eens naast uw stoel gaan zitten- zie Charlie Chaplin- of de naam van uw patiënt vergeten, helpt blijkbaar om de verwachtingen in te tomen.

[Диана · Rating 4 out of 5]

A summary of some of the main points in the book can be found on my blog - https://philoreview.wordpress.com/201...