Self-organization and clinical psychology signals the advent of a new paradigm in psychology. Physicists, neuroscientists and individual and grouptherapists have joined forces to elucidate the new and exciting advances that are being achieved by applying the concepts of non-linear dynamics and self-organization to the human nervous system and the mind.

This book describes an encompassing modeling approach to psychotherapy, created with the most recent research in the field. Therapeutic interventions are staged within a therapist-client relationship ('alliance'), and become effective by the interplay of deterministic ('causation') and stochastic ('chance') forces. The authors use a Fokker-Planck approach complemented by a structural-mathematical framework from complexity theory. Chapters present statistical tools, which can be applied to analyze the differing time series that depict therapeutic processes. Chapters include examples of how to use these tools within research. The approach adopted in the book - contemporary psychotherapy terminology combined with a systems-theoretical model and algorithms for quantitative psychotherapy research - has the potential to become the new benchmark in psychotherapy. The Process of Psychotherapy is an informative and sophisticated resource for all levels of students, from undergraduate through post-doctoral studies, in the fields of psychology, cognitive psychology, and psychotherapy.

This book describes an encompassing modeling approach to psychotherapy, created with the most recent research in the field. Therapeutic interventions are staged within a therapist-client relationship ('alliance'), and become effective by the interplay of deterministic ('causation') and stochastic ('chance') forces. The authors use a Fokker-Planck approach complemented by a structural-mathematical framework from complexity theory. Chapters present statistical tools, which can be applied to analyze the differing time series that depict therapeutic processes. Chapters include examples of how to use these tools within research. The approach adopted in the book - contemporary psychotherapy terminology combined with a systems-theoretical model and algorithms for quantitative psychotherapy research - has the potential to become the new benchmark in psychotherapy. The Process of Psychotherapy is an informative and sophisticated resource for all levels of students, from undergraduate through post-doctoral studies, in the fields of psychology, cognitive psychology, and psychotherapy.

Modelle der Selbstorganisation haben in der Psychologie und Medizin einen zentralen Stellenwert bekommen. Sie erklaren die spontane Entstehung und Veranderung von Ordnungszustanden in komplexen Systemen. Vor allem geht es dabei um Formen dynamischer Ordnung, z. B. um chaotische Prozesse.
Die Prinzipien der Selbstorganisation liegen unterschiedlichsten biologischen, psychischen und sozialen Phanomenen zugrunde, z. B. der (Gestalt-)Wahrnehmung, der Konstruktion von Sinn und Bedeutung, der Entstehung affektiv-kognitiver Strukturen (unter anderem bei psychischen Storungen wie der Schizophrenie), der Funktionsweise des Gehirns, der Wirkung von Psychotherapie oder der Strukturentwicklung in der zwischenmenschlichen Kommunikation.
Dieses Buch gibt einen Uberblick uber neueste Forschungsergebnisse aus diesen Bereichen und informiert uber den aktuellen Stand der Methodik in Synergetik und Chaostheorie."

This edited volume is scientifically based, but readable for a larger audience, covering the concept of "embodied cognition" and its implications from a transdisciplinary angle.