Description

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This book is a comprehensive reference on both the structure and content of the clinical interview and its authors present the strategies and fundamental knowledge required to conduct the clinical interview with different kinds of patients and for specific psychopathologies. It provides a thorough overview on clinical and diagnostic interviewing with state-of-the-art presentations of significant theoretical orientations (psychoanalytic, behavioral, humanistic/existential, and family systems) as well as information on frequently encountered psychopathologies. The book stresses the idea that the clinical interview is controlled by the therapist and develops in a phase-sequenced progression along predictable lines. Clinical interviews flow from a theoretical stance on the part of the clinician, are usually semi-structured to the extent that areas are probed consistent with official diagnostic criteria and with know aspects of suspected psychopathologies, including co-morbidities, and include an understanding of the patient's personality and possible personality disorders that may complicate treatment of Axis I disorders or which may be the focus of treatment itself. This book elucidates this process and may serves as a primary source for practitioners who want to know more about the process of clinical interviewing as well as a useful text for those students who are in the process of learning clinical interviewing.

About the Author

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Robert J. Craig Ph.D., ABPP studied Clinical Psychology at De Paul University and at Illinois Institute of Technology. He is the Director of the Drug Abuse Program at VA Chicago Health Care System and is an Adjunct Professor in Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and at Roosevelt University. He is a Diplomate (Board certification) in both Clinical Psychology and in Administrative Psychology, A Fellow in the American Psychological Association and a Fellow in the Society for Personality Assessment. He is a Consulting Editor to the Journal of Personality Assessment and has published over 100 professional articles in peer-reviewed journals. This is his 8th published book.