Listening to Patients

Dr. Richard Druss is one of psychiatry's most humane and eloquent teachers on the value and healing power of the psychotherapies. This accessible and inspiring book describes crucial aspects of the therapy process and the lives of people who are transformed by it. Its wisdom and insights deserve to be savored by a wide audience of those in the helping professions, students, and interested laypersons. - Kathryn Zerbe, MD, Jack Aron Professor of Psychiatric Education and Women's Mental Health, the Menninger Clinic The thesis of Richard Druss' book is simple: that therapeutic effectiveness is directly dependent on the working alliance between the patient and clinician and that the alliance can only be accomplished by listening to patients. A simple assertion, but one increasingly overlooked in this era of one-hour evaluations, DSM-IV formulations and fifteen minute med checks. Dr. Druss' method of teaching is by clinical anecdote and in doing so he documents his thesis. But he teaches more than listening skills and how they aid psychodynamic understanding. In his case histories he presents a role model for the good clinician: warm, empathic, flexible and thoughtful. He states that the book is directed at psychiatric residents, medical students, and trainees in clinical psychology, social work and nursing, but I think this book will be read with pleasure, and quite possibly profit, by the experienced clinician as well. - Paul H. Wender, MD, University of Utah School of Medicine The author epitomizes what a true teacher is. His credibility and knowledge are unquestionable, and his warm compassion for patients shines ever so brightly through his writing. The author guides readers in a logical and chronological sequence from the establishment of rapport to more complicated issues of psychotherapy such as conflict and transference. In an era where clinicians are pressured to be both efficient and provide quality care, the importance of listening may