Book reviews Interpersonal reconstructive therapy: Promoting change in non-responders

摘要

Lorna Smith Benjamin is best known for her theoretical system called the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior, abbreviated to SASB, and pronounced sasby, which was first published in 1974 For those interested, this is described in Chapter 4 and Appendix 4 1 Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT) is something else, and Benjamin admits (page 121) that it is possible to be good at IRT without understanding SASB IRT is introduced as a special form of psychotherapy for treating patients who have not responded to any other therapy This, I suspect, is just a sales gimmick, for there is no reason why it should not be applied to anyone It is claimed that IRT renders patients more responsive to other forms of therapy, but I cannot see why it would have the edge over any other form of psychotherapy in this respect IRT has not suddenly appeared out of nowhere I am sure that I have read in other works by Benjamin some of its underlying principles, though I am prepared to admit that the present text amounts to a totally comprehensive account of it I am also sure that elsewhere, I have perceived a clearer link between what is now called IRT and the longer standing SASB Three terms from SASB feature prominently in IRT These are hostility, enmeshment and differentiation.