How to Do Self Analysis and Other Self Psychotherapies

This book aims to take the mystery out of the process of psychotherapy. Dr.Gottschalk encourages his readers to apply psychotherapeutic techniques on themselves in order to become faimiliary with how they feel and how they may change ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Dr.Gottschalk presents the factors to consider in selecting the type of self-psychotherapy to be used; personal preference and aptitudes; the nature of the problem(s) to be treated; the degree of change wanted; whether past, present, or future is involved; and whether the goals are short or long-range. There are different types of self-psychotherapies that one can use. The author's major concentration is on the psychoanalytic therapies. He also covers other approaches, such as meditation, religion, behaviour modification and hypnosis.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction: different methods; choosing a psychotherapy; historical background. Part 2 Beginning psychotherapy: classifying the problem area; considering various temporal issues; deciding the scope of the psychotherapy; getting underway. Part 3 The psychoanalytic approach: free association; psychoanalytic views on the nature of emotional disorders; dream analysis and interpretation; integrating the results of self-analysis to remedy one's problems; countertransference difficulties in self-analysis; the psychoanalytic approach to existential issues; a brief example of a successful self-analysis and further comments on obstacles that may be encountered. Part 4 The meditative approach: applying meditation to existential issues; learning how to meditate; an example of subjective experiences during two years of insight meditation. Part 5 Behaviour and conditioning self-psychotherapy: systematic desensitization; behavioural programming; self reinforcement (self rewarding versus self-punishing); subjective images and self-statements as behavioural rehearsals; subjective images and self-statements as means of stress and tension reduction; subjective self-statements dealing with causality; the use of meditation combined with behavioural and conditioning self-psychotherapy. Part 6 Religious approaches: examples of favourable results through self-psychotherapy mediated by religious means; examples of the treatment of grief; self-grief and insufficient reward for religious faith. Part 7 Other self-psychotherapeutic methods - autogenic training: self-hypnosis; hypnosis and self-hypnosis in terminal cancer; self-psychotherapy with crystals. Part 8 The middle period of self-analysis and self-psychotherapy: coping with some deterrents; recognizing progress. Part 9 Terminal phases of self-analysis and self-psychotherapy: analyzing the degree of success in making progress; further observations concerning readiness for termination. Part 10 Afterword: recurrences of symptoms and signs of one's old problems; concluding observations.